


Building It Back Up

by Magicphobic



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom, borderlands 2 - Fandom
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Gen, Multi, Other, canon lore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-21 16:35:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 77,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7395160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magicphobic/pseuds/Magicphobic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You've gotta break it down to build it back up."</p><p>Rhys, now proud CEO of ATLAS gets pulled into an investigation to find out what's causing major quakes on Pandora's moon Elpis. He enlists the help of his friends  to figure this case out. While exploring Elpis Rhys runs into an odd experience at an old vault, gifting him with powers he never knew he had. While trying to deal with this and save the moon, an old "friend" of Rhys's shows his ugly head once again thanks to Rhys's little robot, Dumpy, bringing the AI remains along for the ride. One could easily tell Rhys that reinstalling the Handsome AI was a bad choice but he did it anyway with no other options left at his disposal. Although still annoyed with Rhys and his previous actions, Handsome Jack in his current ruined state with no control over Rhys at all now has no choice but to do what Rhys says, less he risk being disconnected for good, never to see the light of day again. And that's something Jack decided he wouldn't want to face. Although the moon is the last of their problems with Rhys displaying signs of a siren, accidentally giving Jack flesh, and almost everyone out to kill them, this story is only just beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Long Time, No See.

**Author's Note:**

> This fiction is rated mature for violence, cussing, use of drugs and alcohol, use of guns and other lethal weapons, and possible sexual content.
> 
> Sorry in advance for misspelling and typos, I have spell check but we all know it doesn't work sometimes. This is a full length novel, expect multiple chapters. It also may be considered an AU and I might not be 100% accurate with my game lore, though I do try to be. Yes I play the games. 
> 
> This is SUPPOSED to be a Rhys/Jack fiction but I can't just ship without context so this is an EXTREMELY SLOW BURN fiction, as I need to build chemistry and context for the shipping. If you like action/actual story, with the shipping being a bonus, this one is for you. Honestly if I skipped out on the shipping bit, I could promote this as a Tales sequel.
> 
> This fiction now has a book cover! Check it out here: http://magicphobic.tumblr.com/image/156378506522

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> About a year has past since the events of the first Tales From the Borderlands game. Rhys get's a call from Fiona requesting that he come to Elpis, Pandora's moon, to investigate odd quakes that started there recently. She explains the situation is major and he should come right away. Rhys agrees to come check the issue out and see if he can do anything with it. Fiona informs him he would need a rocket and Rhys makes plans to go visit his mechanic friend, Janey Springs. On the way out Rhys almost drops a case which contains the Handsome Jack AI infected holo-lense that he had kept. Rhys puts it back and goes to leave and his little robot companion Dumpy figures he was forgetting it and decided to take the lense out of it's case and bring it with him before following Rhys out the door to meet up with Janey to settle the problem of acquiring a rocket to Elpis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF REVISING THIS FICTION, YOU CAN STILL READ IT AND THE STORY PLOT ISN'T CHANGING BUT THE CHAPTERS WILL BE SLOWLY REPLACED WITH THE MORE UPDATED AND DETAILED VERSIONS. I STARTED TO FEEL LIKE THE FICTION WAS GETTING A BIT RUSHED AND THAT'S MY OWN FAULT SO I AM REVISING TO FIX UP THIS FICTION. NO NEW UPDATES WILL HAPPEN IN TERMS OF PLOT DEVELOPMENT UNTIL THESE REVISIONS ARE DONE. A NOTE WILL BE AT THE END OF EACH CHAPTER TO LET YOU KNOW THEY HAVE BEEN REVISED ONCE THE REVISION HAS HAPPENED.
> 
> THANK YOU FOR READING.

Rhys, once a humble company man working for Hyperion, now the CEO of ATLAS, was working away quietly on some paper work in the newly refurbished office of the old ATLAS building that was long since abandoned. It was always quiet around here, seeings how Rhys hadn't exactly gotten around to hiring anyone to work for him yet. There was still a lot of work to get done and put in order before he could move on with plans like that, just having the documents saying he owned the company wasn't enough to just start up a dormant company again. Besides, Rhys didn't want anyone around for a while anyway, the place was still mostly in a mess. Things needed to be cleaned up, then he had to look into fixing all the computers and other tech that was laying around the building. When all that was done, then he would look into actually getting the business up and operational. It was really only very recently was he starting to get used to his new found power, being the owner of the biggest manufacturer on Pandora now that Hyperion was barely hanging on by a thread. Having a former employee crash the major base of operations might of had something to do with the ATLAS takeover.

 

The company here consisted of himself and Dumpy, the little defective robot that had originally came from this very same facility. Rhys had taken it upon himself to try and fix up the small robot, and now it was functioning as a personal assistant to Rhys. Rhys really didn't mind the quietness, he rather enjoyed it, found it good for productivity and focusing on work. That said, he hadn't become a complete shut in and did get a chance to leave from time to time and go outside. Usually he'd take the time to go stop by the nearby base, of which his best friend Vaughn was the leader of. Rhys was content with not wandering out much further than that though, due to the series of events that he had experienced a little over a year ago, he'd gotten to see more of Pandora than he ever needed to see. He had become adjusted to life on Pandora, yes, but that aside it was still a very dangerous place and not exactly anything worth touring. There was no point in staying out in the wild, unless one had the intent to be ripped apart by the locals, both human and animal.

 

Rhys sighed and leaned back in his chair, thinking on things. He had to admit the life he was leading now was pretty good considering where he came from and what he went through to get here. He had sorta gotten the dream job he had always wanted, a CEO position, not of Hyperion, but ATLAS was much better. It was great knowing that the extra paper work aside, he technically had everything under his control now, all thanks to a scrap of paper.

The quietness and relaxing atmosphere of the office didn't last long though, quickly shifting as Rhys found himself being startled by the sound of sudden loud ringing of someone trying to reach him via Echo communications. Setting his paper work aside for now, Rhys pushed a few buttons on his computer and brought up a screen behind him. He turned to face it, answering the call.

 

“Rhys!” A familiar sounding female voice came in over the line. There wasn't any video data to be displayed identifying the speaking, but Rhys already knew who it was.

“Fiona, is that you?” Rhys replied, a small smile creeping up on his face.

“Yeah, it's me.” Fiona confirmed and then carried on. “It's been awhile since we last spoke, haven't seen you since that whole Vault of the Traveller thing.”

“About that... I've been meaning to call and ask you how things were going and all but I kinda forgot.” Rhys expressed himself. “Things have just been so busy for me lately I've forgotten about a lot of things.”

“It's fine.” Fiona reassured him. “I know ATLAS is a big company, so I understand. I've been busy myself anyway with the Vault hunting gig.”

“Oh? How's that going for you anyway?” Rhys questioned.  
Fiona hesitated to respond for a moment. “It's... okay.” She said. “It's certainly interesting.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah, I mean it does have its fair share of ups and dow-” Fiona was cut off mid-sentence as a large loud rumbling was heard along with some screaming. The call signal was even dropped for a quick second then returned.

Rhys leaned forward in his chair now, sitting on the edge as he had quickly become worried by the sudden commotion. “Fi? Fiona, are you okay?”

It took another moment for the call to completely stabilize again and the noise to calm down, but eventually Fiona managed to respond to him. “Y-yeah, I'm fine.” She replied, a bit shaken up.

“Where are you?” Rhys asked.

“I'm... on Elpis. Pandora's moon.” Fiona said. “Listen... I didn't just call you to have a casual chat and catch up on old times.”

“I'm starting to catch onto that concept myself.” Rhys responded. “What are you doing on the moon?”

 

“I need your help.” Fiona started in. “I'm on Elpis because I heard of a few Vaults that might be here. I found one but it was already looted. No one really knows what happened there or who looted it before me... but during my time here I keep experiencing these... really strong quakes. Just like the one you just heard. Apparently Elpis has always had minor quakes, but never ones this big and violent. The problem is that they keep getting worse and worse with each one, as if something is causing it to happen.”

“That sounds pretty bad.” Rhys responded. “Maybe you should get out of there?”

“What good will that do me? I'm going to die, along with you and pretty much everyone on Pandora and Elpis if the moon blows up.” Fiona stated a bit sarcastically.

Rhys's eyes widened in shock. “W-what!? What do you mean by the moon blowing up?”

“A lot of the locals here are saying that since the surface of Elpis is very thin and it's mostly made of volcanic plates, if the quakes keep increasing in size and splitting apart the ground like they are doing, eventually, yes, Elpis could potentially pop like a balloon. The problem is that Elpis is so close to Pandora that an explosion of that size would damage most of the surface life on Pandora, almost completely destroying half of the planet with it.” Fiona explained.

“Oh, well this suddenly became a bigger problem than I had expected.” Rhys said, standing up and pacing his office now. “So, what am I suppose to do exactly?”

“I kinda figured since you owned something like ATLAS now that you'd may be able to come up with some sort of quick and easy solution?” Fiona suggested. “You should have access to a bunch of helpful technology in that place, right?”

“I...I don't know Fi, that's a pretty big request. I mean, I don't know even what to start with. I can't just figure out any ideas from the top of my head on how to stop that. I'm not a geologist, but I do know I'd need to know things like the route of which the quakes are originating from...or something... and even then I'm not even sure if ATLAS does have technology that can be useful or not.” Rhys pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to calm himself down before he got completely worked up. “Why am I only now hearing about this from you?” He looked back up at the blank screen. “Why hasn't anyone on Elpis, _oh I dunno_ , warned Pandora that all life could be wiped out soon?”

“Rhys, it's Pandora we're talking about here. I'm pretty sure very few people actually care.” Fiona responded. “And ATLAS made Gortys, something that is able to summon and defeat a Vault Monster, and you're going to tell me you don't have _anything_ that can stop a quake?”

Rhys sighed. “Alright, you got me there. I guess I'll have a look around and see what I can come up with. Also, It'd probably make sense for me to actually be there so I can like, study it up close and see exactly what seems to be going on and all that stuff. Y'know, examine Elpis?” Rhys walked back to his computer and brought up a smaller screen and keyboard and started typing away on it. He was looking for any information he could find within ATLAS's database for a rough idea on where to start looking for the technology he would need.

 

“Well if you're planning on coming here you'll need a rocket ship for that.” Fiona replied. “Or someone who knows of a Fast Travel path up here.”

“Yeah, I think I know where I can get one though.” Rhys said as he pulled up a second screen and look some more information over. “I'll just hit Janey up, I'm sure she wouldn't mind making one for me. Something from scratch this time instead of that bucket of bolts we had going into Helios.”

“Hey, that thing was good for what it was worth. It had enough juice left in it to help us destory a monster, did it not?” Fiona shot back with a little bit of a playful tone to her voice.

“Fair enough.” Rhys responded and rolled his eyes. “I should be able to get back to you within a few days.”

There was the sudden sound of another quake hitting. “Uh... J-just how many days is a few days, Rhys?” Fiona asked, her playful tone quickly turning into worry.

Rhys looked off to the side in thought. “I'm not entirely sure...”

“Well, figure it out Rhys.” Fiona demanded. “I don't think we have that much time.”

“Okay, I said I'll see what I can do.” Rhys replied standing up now and grabbing a nearby bag and gathering up some things he would need to take with him. “I'm getting ready now, I'll go pop in on Janey and see how long it will take for her to make a fully working rocket, _then_ I'll get back to you as soon as I can with that information.”

“Just... please try to hurry.” Fiona said.

“I will... Hang in there, Fi.” Rhys ended the call.

 

“Dumpy!” Rhys called out to the little robot that quickly zoomed up to him and made it's arrival known with a very glitched out voice that Rhys just couldn't seem to figure out how to fix. “I need you to grab my car keys, we're going on a trip.”

The little bot chirped happily and zoomed off searching the area for the item in question. Rhys continued to pack up his belongings. A spare change of clothes, learning from the last time he was on an adventure that sometimes things get very, very messy. He walked over to the small cabinet of belongings sitting in the corner of his office. He was looking for his makeshift portable repair kit in case any of his cybernetics decided to break down on him while he was on the moon. He retrieved it and closed the cabinet doors a little harder than he had intended to, causing him to jump as he quickly acted to catch the item that he knocked down off of the top of it before it had a chance to hit the ground and shatter everywhere.

“Whoa, that was close.” Rhys said as he started to put the item he caught back up on top of the cabinet, but then suddenly stopped, taking a closer look at the object. It was a small glass container, it had a small holder and within it was his old original Echo Eye. The exact same one he had to rip out of his head when he was trying to...

“No, stop thinking about it.” He told himself and shoved the eye back up on the ledge and started to walk away. “That is a reminder of what not to become. To not let this power of running ATLAS get to my head. I refuse to become what he was.”

 

As Rhys was walking he almost crashed into the robot that had returned to him with his requested car keys in tow. He took them, thanking the small robot and then heading for the office doors, ready to head into town and hook up with Janey Springs. Dumpy was excited to follow, but it couldn't help but let out a smaller chirp as it became overridden with curiosity, looking up at the Echo Eye that sat on the cabinet. He processed the fact that Rhys was just looking at the object a few seconds ago. The little robot figured that Rhys was forgetting about it and meant to take it with him, so, being the good PA that he was, he floated up and opened the small glass container, reaching in and taking the eye. It was small enough for the robot to be able to store it in it's own personal compartment for safe keeping. Hearing his name being called again Dumpy chirped and turned towards the doorway of the office. The robot quickly flew out the door and caught up with Rhys, looking forward to following him on his new journey.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***This Chapter has been revised.***


	2. More Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys arrives at Janeys to request a rocket only to find out that it would take several days to make one, even with all the parts. Janey's wife Athena walks in and overhears part of the conversation and the issue Rhys is facing. Rhys informs the both of them that Elpis has a risk of blowing up and it's important that he some how gets to the moon. Athena noted a really quick way to get there would be a Fast Travel system and suggested that Rhys may get lucky and find a working Fast Travel among the ruins of Helios. Rhys leaves to head to the ruins of Helios. He also found out some new information about Handsome Jack that he didn't know about before.

Rhys pulled into the parking lot outside of the Catch-A-Ride shop. He parked his car and told Dumpy to stay put as he got out of the car. Rhys was really found of the car he had, mainly because he had been able to recover and repair it after the damage it had taken, and also because the car was stolen. This car used to belong to Vasquez, a company rival who put Rhys though hell and caused him to rebel due to terms of fowl play. He had royally screwed Rhys out of a long awaited, and not to mention well deserved, promotion. It's what caused Rhys to retaliate and get revenge on the man in the most cruellest way possible, and he technically succeeded. Rhys thought about it for a moment and smirked. Really he should be thanking Vasquez, since he was better off now than he ever was or ever would of been. He would thank the man... if he wasn't already long dead, that is.

 

Rhys couldn't really say he felt sorry about that or about all the things that happened. He really, really disliked Vasquez and to this day he'd still never feel sorry for him. He couldn't deny how good it felt to steal the custom car he had ordered, and then on top of that to have kept it for his own in the long run. Rhys turned his mind back onto the current task at hand now as he walked into the shop, looking around for any sign of Janey. She wasn't there to greet him as soon as he walked in, so he let himself in and headed over to the counter. He waited for a moment, just to see if she was out back currently busy with something.

 

“Oh God dammit-” There was the loud sound of some metal materials being tipped over and crashing hard into the floor, then quickly settling down in their new location. Rhys watched as a single metal tube rolled out from the back room and stopped at his feet. Rhys picked it up and smirked, watching the doorway as Janey walked through it, looking for that same piece of pipe that gotten away from her. “Now where did that-” She stopped and looked at Rhys, smiling now. “Oh, heya Rhys! Didn't hear you come in.”

“It's fine.” Rhys replied, handing over the metal tube to her. “It sounds like you were busy with something anyway.”

“Nah, not really. I was just reorganizing my inventory.” Janey replied, thanking him for picking up the tube and laid it aside. She leaned on the counter. “What brings you here, anyway? Didn't think a big company man like you still had time to visit us plain folk.”

“I have a small request for you, if you're not busy with other projects you have planned.” Rhys replied with a chuckle.

“Well, how busy I am is based on what yer askin'.” Janey replied. “What do you have in mind?”

“Long story short, I need another rocket ship.” Rhys responded quickly.

“I think I want to hear the long story.” Janey said. “Why do you need a rocket ship?”

“I need to go to Elpis.”

“Why on Pandora would you want to go to Elpis?” Janey questioned.

“Okay, so long story it is then.” Rhys sighed and started in with an explanation. “Fiona called me, she's currently up on Elpis right now looking for Vaults and she said there's some sort of strange activity going on. Major quakes that are doing a lot of damage.”

“Oh? Is that what she's worried about? That's normal.” Janey laughed. “Lived on Elpis for a good chunk of my life, I did. Quakes are normal, Elpis is a giant volcanic space rock after all.”

“Well then tell that to the locals that claim the ground is actually splitting apart in large chunks and say that the moon is at risk of exploding, and taking half of Pandora with it.”

“Oh... That... That's not normal.” Janey replied and headed around her counter to a computer and started working on it. “So how will you going to a moon that is about to blow up help anyone?”

“I don't know how I'm going to help yet, exactly...” Rhys admitted. “I need to get up there myself and have a look at what's going on and then try to figure out some way to save the moon.”

 

“I'm getting some major deja vu.” Janey stated.

“Why is that?” Rhys asked.

“Y'see, a few years back... the moon was at risk of blowing up before.” Janey looked up from her computer. “But that wasn't from normal quakes or anything, it was a man-made problem, but still, I suppose the threat is still the same.”

“What happened? Who was trying to blow the moon up?”

“DALH.” Janey replied. “They hijacked Helios's laser canon in an attempt to sabotage Hyperion, company wars and whatnot.”

“Oh wow.” Rhys replied. “How much damage do you think they did?”

“A fair bit, I'd say.” Janey said and looked back down at her computer, combing through some items. “Large crater where they repeatedly shot the moon.”

“Hm, that could be why there's issues now.” Rhys replied. “Damage of that amount done to anything is bound to cause some nasty side effects. Maybe it like, stirred up the volcanic nature of the planet or something?”

“Maybe.” Janey shrugged.

“Say, out of curiosity... how did Hyperion regain control and stop DALH, if they did stop them that is. I'm just assuming they did.” Rhys spoke.

Janey looked up from her computer and stared back at Rhys for a moment or two. She let her gaze drop and shifted, coughing a little bit to clear her throat before speaking again. “It was... _Jack_.” She said, looking back at Rhys again, looking for his reaction to mentioning the name, knowing bad-blood with the man.

“No way.” Rhys replied folding his arms looking back at Janey in disbelief. “You're kidding me? Jack? _Handsome Jack_ saved the moon? Really?” He didn't believe it.

“Look, I know that you have issues, but yes! Back then he actually wasn't that bad and he saved Elpis. He hired some Vault Hunters for personal work but quickly got them involved in helping him when DALH attacked. Everything was planned by him and he called the shots and he had Elpis's well being in his best interest.” Janey replied. “I know he turned out to be a really bad guy later on, but in that moment... he was a real hero... shame... I often wonder what happened to him...” She sighed. “Maybe it's written somewhere that all heroes must fall eventually?”

Rhys blinked, processing Janey's words. “You're not lying to me about any of this, are you?”

“I would never tell a lie, not to you anyway!” Janey replied. “If you don't believe me, ask Athena. She's one of the Vault Hunters he hired to work for him during all of that. She was there and witnessed everything.”

“I just might have to do that later after this whole issue passes.” Rhys replied to the idea. “Right now I'll just take your word for it and put my focus back on the moon blowing up, again, from natural causes this time.”

“Oh, right. That is a problem, innit?”

 

Jane did a few more things on her computer and looked at Rhys. “Well, I'm missing some important parts for a proper ship, and I'm assume you don't want to turn your car or anything into one, seeings how well that turned out the last time.” She looked at a clipboard that was sitting on the counter next to her. “To get the parts I need shipped in and to make it, you're looking at a few weeks to at least a month or two.”

“What!” Rhys exclaimed. “That's too long, Fiona said she really feels that we don't have much time...”

“I'm sorry Rhys but that's the best I can do. I guess we just have to hope the moon doesn't decide to blow up any time soon while I'm working on the rocket.” Janey frowned.

“What if I supplied the parts you needed?” Rhys asked. “ATLAS has a lot of old junk just lying around and collecting dust. I'm sure I can find what you need and have it shipped out. How long would it take then?”

Janey hummed and look at another page on the clipboard and then back to Rhys once more. “Even if you could supply the parts, I'm still going to need a few weeks. You're asking me to build something completely from scratch from the ground up, not just to modify a caravan into a makeshift ride.”

“Well what am I suppose to do now?” Rhys questioned, sighing and leaning against the counter himself now, staring at the floor.

“You could Fast Travel there...” Janey Replied.

“I've never done that before.” Rhys said. “The whole concept of deconstructing my body, sending it over pulse waves at high speeds, and then reconstructing it somewhere else kinda freaks me out.”

“Awh, it ain't as bad as it sounds.” Janey replied. “And it would solve your problem with needing to get to Elpis quickly. You'd need to find a path to Elpis first, though.”

“Alright, let's say I was willing to try it. How do I do it and where would I find a path to Elpis?” Rhys looked up again and asked her.

 

“I might have an idea.” A third voice entered the room.

“Athena! There you are, love!” Janey smiled and greeted the purple haired woman with a kiss. “Where have you been? Haven't seen you all day.”

“Work.” Athena replied.

“I thought you said you'd give that dangerous stuff up?” Janey frowned at her.

“I can't. It's my natural passion to want to do work like that, it's all I've ever done.” She sighed. “You know that.”

Janey rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. I just get so worried about you, I have a right to care.”

“I know, I'm sorry I make you worry, but trust me, I'm fine. I can handle myself.” She gave Janey a reassuring smile and then turned to give her attention to Rhys. “Now what's this I overheard about you needing to get to Elpis?”

“I guess you weren't here for the whole moon is going to blow up part?” Rhys questioned.

“No, I literally just got here.” Athena replied. “But... what do you mean it's going to blow up?”

“We think it's leftover damage from the DALH attacks.” Janey explained to Athena. “Fiona is up there right now and told Rhys that they are getting extremely bad quakes.”

“That does sound like quite the problem.” Athena responded.

“Yeah.” Rhys spoke up. “And I need to get to Elpis as soon as possible, but I can't get there without either a ship or a Fast Travel pathway.”

“Well if you need a ship, my gal is is the best for that, but if you're looking for Fast Travel...” Athena took a moment to think. “Your friend, Vaughn, hes the one that runs the base made out of the remains of Helios, right?”

“Yeah he is.” Rhys confirmed. “Why are you asking?”

“Well, as I'm sure Janey has already mentioned to you, Helios was involved in the last issues the moon had with blowing up.” Athena explained. “If you're feeling lucky, I suggest checking out the ruins and seeing if you can find an old Fast Travel station. If it's not broken too badly you may be able to repair it, but you'd need to find it first, of course. Being involved with the disaster back then I'm more than sure Helios has some stations with Fast Travel paths leading to Elpis. You'd just have to power it up to use it again.”

 

“I could give it a try, I guess?” Rhys shrugged, he didn't really have anything to loose by it. “I was planning on stopping by there and filling Vaughn in about the situation anyway.”

“That's your best option then, unless you do want to wait for a ship.” Janey added. “If you wanted to take that bet on the moon not popping while I'm building it, that is.”

“Yeah, no. I... I'd rather try the fast travel thing first.” Rhys replied. “Thanks, though.”

“Oh, don't mention it.” Janey smiled. “If you change your mind or need something else, don't hesitate to ask.”

“I won't.” Rhys said, thanking the pair again and heading for the door. “I'll make sure to keep you two up to date when I can.”

“Alright!” Janey waved him off. “Good luck! Meanwhile me and Athena need to plan some things and do them, just in case the moon does blow up and we all die!”

“Wait, what?” Athena questioned.

“Don't worry.” Rhys called back chuckling. “I'll make sure you two have all the time in the world to spend with each other without the fear of dying so suddenly.”

And with that, Rhys got back in his car and headed off to go meet up with his friend.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***This chapter has been revised.***


	3. Pew,Pew, Kaboom!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys makes it to the camp owned by his friend Vaughn at the Ruins of Helios only to find it completely deserted. Upon trespassing to try and find out what happened to everyone he is ambushed. Rhys isn't one to go down without a fight however before he single handled took out most of the attackers and goons of Vaughn, only the face the big man himself in a giant suit of power armor with a minigun at hand. Rhys eventually beat Vaughn down and was about to finish his old friend off, but once he pulled the trigger he discovered he wasted all his bullets on everything else. Vaughn took advantage of this and called his back up plan to attack Rhys. They killed him. After the fight Rhys tells Vaughn about the issue on Elpis and about how he's looking for a Fast Travel system with coordinates to Elpis on it. Rhys runs into LB and Gortys as well, they help him find a Fast Travel station. The machine they found however is broken and Rhys wonders if he can fix. Upon finding out there's no power to the section of the ship to test it, Rhys and Gortys go on a small adventure to return power, finding the main hub an turning it back on, as well as upturning some darker memories. They head back to test the Fast Travel.

“Hello?” Rhys called out as he stepped out of his car and in front of the large metal security gates. Normally there was someone on duty that would be manning the gate to let people in... or to keep people out. Rhys walked up to the wall of the gate and pressed a button on the intercom installed into the wall. The intercom beeped and sounded like someone was going to pick up, but no one did. Rhys frowned as he turned and looked up at the security camera that was pointed towards him, watching.

“I know someone has to be there.” Rhys said, speaking into the intercom. “Vaughn? It's me, let me in! I called you in advance and told you I was showing up, you should be expecting me!”

The area remained silent, almost unnaturally so. Rhys felt a bit unwell as he paced along the outskirts of the gate, looking it up and down seeing if he could spot another way in.

“Where the hell is everyone?” He asked as he looked around, trying to peak between the metal panels searching for any sign of life within the walls of the base. He understood the fact people here needed to keep up high security, but this was a bit much.

 

Finally an idea came to Rhys as he spotted a ladder hanging down over the side of the gate's watch tower. It was an escape ladder meant to only be used during emergencies in case the gate stopped working. Just leaving it unattended to like this was a major security breach... and something that Rhys was going to take full advantage of. He'd probably tell Vaughn about it once he got on the other side of the wall, to make sure someone more dangerous than himself doesn't exploit it.

With a jump and a slight struggle to reach the ladder, Rhys finally managed to pull himself up and climb the tower. He stood at the top and looked around the watch tower. It looked like someone had only left the area very recently, almost as if they left as soon as they saw Rhys starting to pull up to the base. He frowned and examined some of the objects that were left laying around, such as a half eaten candy bar that was still moist.

One of two things could be going on here. Either there was a very serious issue that took place here just moments before Rhys arrived, causing the guards to flee, or something else more unexpected was currently taking place.

Rhys glanced over at the other tower and didn't see anyone over there either, nor was there anyone walking around down below near the bottom of the gate, from what he could tell, anyway. He sighed and made his way down from tower using the ladder that was on the other side.

 

The sound of his feet making contact with the ground almost echoed throughout the area and caused Rhys to feel uneasy. Much to his surprise the whole place was deserted. This was very unusual given that any other time he was here the place was full with people. Rhys's mind started to jump to the worse possible conclusions available, every small noise causing him to jump and stay on guard. He pushed forward, seeking out his friend.

 

“Hello...?” Rhys called out again with no response. “Is anyone here?”

He continued to walk and head up a pathway, past an old statue of Handsome Jack that was was beheaded and had Rhys's name spray painted onto it's chest. The whole thing was creepy to begin with, but with the current situation, the statue was even more unsettling.

Rhys turned his gaze back to the path, stopping mid way and looking around him, only the faint howl of the wind acknowledging his existence. “Vaughn? Anyone!? C'mon guys, this isn't funny.” Rhys was starting to get more annoyed now instead of scared, scowling with a clenched fist and continued walking the path.

Rhys pasted by some large metal chunks that belonged to the remains of what was once Helios, heading down the branching path that lead to the main section of the ship that still remained in tact, the core of it, Helios's Eye. This part of the ship had been converted into a large control centre and work space, and it was where Rhys's friend Vaughn could usually be found.

Rhys stopped in his tracks as he heard another set of footsteps behind him. They continued, approaching him, and then finally stopping behind him. Rhys hesitated for a moment and then turned around, letting out a sigh of relief when he came face to face with one of the survivors.

 

“Oh, thank god. Hey!” Rhys addressed the suited man that stood there, staring back at him. “Can you do me a favour and tell me what's going on-”

Rhys suddenly froze in place, watching the man do an all too familiar hand gesture towards him. The man proceeded to make a “Ca-click.” sound with his mouth and aim a shotgun at Rhys, a serious expression painted on his face.

Rhys slowly backed up from the man, watching as the man slowly followed up, not allowing Rhys to put distance between them. “W-wait! I don't mean any-”

“Ka-blam!” The man exclaimed as he fired at Rhys, resulting in Rhys screaming and diving to take cover.

“If that's how you want to be, then bring it on!” Rhys suddenly took out a small pistol and prepared himself, grinning. He honestly should of expected this to be the answer.

 

Without a warning Rhys darted out from behind his cover, quickly doing a roll and fanning the hammer of his pistol as he aimed and took the man with the shot gun down instantly. There was a battle cry that followed up with a group of 3 more men running out, each of them wielding SMGs and firing at Rhys.

Rhys acted quickly and took out a grenade, pulling the pin with his teeth and tossing it at them to stop in their attack, watching the grenade roll up to them. It stopped at the group leader's feet with the two men behind him looking down at it over his shoulder. They all started to scream but before they could get away-

“Kaboosh!”

They got blasted backwards and landed, scattered across the ground.

Rhys started to run down the pathway, heading towards the Eye, taking potshots as more people suddenly came out, trying to take him down. One man suddenly jumped out and stopped Rhys, standing in front of him and holding him at gunpoint with a laser gun.

“Hey, what's that over there?” Rhys asked, getting the man's attention and causing him to look behind him. Rhys quickly acted on this and turned the tables, knocking the man out with a quick punch and taking his gun, continuing to run, turning around and fighting off the ten other people that started to chase him down the pathway. Rhys watched as they screamed and caught fire due to the lasers, running into each other and causing others to trip up and fall, allowing Rhys to gain more ground.

 

This was far from over as a group of 5 more people were waiting for Rhys further down the path. They all had heavy-duty miniguns and were lined off across the path, blocking his progress. They all revved up their guns as Rhys approached, aiming at him. Rhys smirked as he stopped and quickly became surrounded by more people who were waiting on the sidelines to jump in. He remained calm. Rhys decided this was about as far as he may get, dropping his weapon and putting his hands up in surrender, hoping the enemies closing in on him would show some mercy.

Apparently, they would not, as the miniguns fired with the harsh sound of “Ratatatatatatata!”

“Blam! Blam! Blam!” Rhys reacted quickly, expecting the enemies would continue to close in, he pulled out two large shot guns from under his coat and started to shoot at the group, spinning in all direction to dodge their oncoming attacks. He almost made it through unscathed but a sniper got a lucky shot, hitting his arm and causing him to drop his shot guns.

Rhys let out a cry of pain, holding his arm, and wondering where the sniper shot from. He spotted them a few feet away, along with some more people, armed with rocket launchers, aiming up to fire at him. Struggling through the pain, Rhys grabbed one of the miniguns and struggled to hold it as he steadied himself and lined up with the group, and then pulling the trigger on the gun, spraying and praying at the attackers, luckily hitting them all and killing them. At this point Rhys had become completely unstoppanle.

 

Everything calmed down, the attacks stopped. Rhys breathe heavily as the smoke cleared and he tossed the minigun aside, looking around at the carnage he had just left behind. All the corpses laying motionless around him. It was quiet again, just like it was when he arrived. Was it over?

No. It wasn't. It was too easy for it to just be over like that. Rhys realized this as suddenly the ground around him shook and he glanced down at the end of the path that was only a few feet away. The large doors of the building opened up as a bunch of steam was released. The sound of mechanical parts moving was heard with heavy thuds as the final attacker slowly approached Rhys. He was ready.

“Boosh... boosh...” Someone walked out of the building, they were dressed in heavy power armour with a much larger machine gun in his hands. “Welcome to the boss battle!”

Rhys recognized the voice and watched as the heavy footsteps continued to approach him, carrying his friend in the armour. A wicked smirk grew across Rhys's face as Vaughn finally stopped, looking down at Rhys.

“I can't believe this!” Rhys looked up at Vaughn, now letting his smile fade and putting on a harsh and judgmental scowl. “This is how it's going to end? Betrayed by my best friend?”

“You were a fool from the very beginning to have trusted me, Rhys!” Vaughn said, trying to make a deep and threatening tone. “Ka-Chook.” He cocked his gun and then aimed it directly at Rhys. “Now, prepare to meet your demise.”

“I think the real fool here, is you, Vaughn!” Rhys declared, pulling a fast one and sliding under Vaughn and grabbing an abandoned SMG that laid on the ground behind him, taking fire at Vaughn instantly. “Takatakatakatakataka!”

Vaughn laughed as he slowly turned around and faced Rhys, the bullets from the gun simply bouncing off of him. “You idiot!” Vaughn said. “I have a shield! With it active your bullets are worthless against my armour!”

“Oh really? You want to rethink that statement, bro.” Rhys suddenly jumped up and made a “Whoosh.” noise, flicking his wrist to the side and revealing his stun baton.

“Wait, you still have that thing!?” Vaughn looked worried.

“'Course I do!” Rhys replied smugly. “Stun Batons are awesome!” He suddenly made a swinging motion towards Vaughn, causing him to recoil as he got hit by the baton, getting shocked.

“Aaaaaaugh!” Vaughn screamed as Rhys held him back. “My shiiiiields are faaaailing!”

“Your reign of power ends here, Vaughn!” Rhys exclaimed, pulling back and watching as Vaughn fell to the ground, weakened and struggling to stand.

Rhys loomed over him and put the barrel of the SMG against Vaughn's head. “It's been a good run, friend.”

“Click.” Vaughn looked up at Rhys, confused as to why he wasn't already dead yet. “Click... click, click, click, click!” Rhys scowled.

 

“He's out of ammo!” Vaughn exclaimed, alerting his back up and stumbling backwards, gaining distance from Rhys.

“No-No wait!” Rhys turned to run only to be tackled by a group of children.

They pinned him down and screamed random nonsense as they beat him with wrenches and pipes. “Yeaaaaaaaaaaah! Psychos rulllllllleeeeeee!”

“I...I give up! I surrender! I can't fight the unstoppable!” Rhys threw in the towel, taking his last breath as he took a final blow from a metal wrench to the face.

The Psychos stopped their attack. Who remained alive after the whole ordeal slowly started to gather around as silence fell over the area once more. Vaughn stood up, looking at Rhys's motionless body. “It was a good run, friend.” Vaughn said, repeating what Rhys had said.

The wind howled again cutting through the quietness. Bodies of the injured, dying, and decease littered the grounds of the base. Everything was surprisingly calm. Now, it was finally over.

 

“Heh... heh... ahahahaha!” Rhys started to laugh, sitting up and looking up at Vaughn who was grinning and started to laugh with him. “AHAHAHA, dammit! You played dirty!”

“I did not!” Vaughn smirked and held his hand out to help Rhys up, the dead coming back to life and standing up now too, slowly returning to their normal jobs and lives. “Not my fault you can't bring yourself to win out over children.”

“You wouldn't allow yourself to win either.” Rhys replied, taking Vaughns hand and dusting himself off. “We all know Psychos are vicious!” He smiled at the children looking up at him. They giggled and then ran off to continue to play with each other, talking about how awesome the whole battle was and boasting about how they managed to take down Rhys.

“Well, it was fun while it lasted.” Vaughn smiled. “Shouldn't of told you about my shield though.”

“You really shouldn't of.” Rhys replied.

“In all honestly though, do you actually still have that thing?” Vaughn looked at him.

Rhys shifted and showed a small round metal tube that sat hooked onto his belt. “Yes, I do. I did say it was awesome, though of course I'd never actually use it on you.”

“Wow... I mean I guess given what you did manage to do with that thing...” Vaughn laughed again. “God, that battle was awesome though!” He started to walk with Rhys back down the path towards the doors that lead into the Eye of Helios. “Maybe we can do something on the moon or someplace cool like that next time.”

“Yeah ma-” Rhys was suddenly hit with realization. “Moon! The moon is going to blow up!”

“...What?” Vaughn looked at Rhys confused.

 

“Listen, long story but... Fiona called. She's on Elpis, there's quakes, and people say those quakes will eventually make the moon explode. I need to help find a way to stop it cause apparently it will take out half of Pandora with it if it explodes. I need to get onto the moon, a rocket ship would take too long to build, so Athena told me to check the old Helios travel stations to see if they are still intact and check for a Fast Travel location to the moon.” Rhys took a breath. “So naturally I need your help, since this base of yours is what is left of Helios.”

“Okay... Okay I get it, we have a problem.” Vaughn replied. “I can't guarantee you'll find what you're looking for but feel free to have a look around anyway.” He lead Rhys though the doors and into the remains of Helios, bringing him into the main area that branched off into other sections that were still intact, as well as the new exits where things were broken. “So like, how much time do we have before Elpis pops like a balloon?” He asked.

“Fiona claimed that people were saying it can go at any moment with any warning, one bad quake and it's game over.” Rhys replied. “I'm not even entirely sure what's causing the quakes at this point.”

 

A small red orb rolled up to Rhys and then popped open, revealing itself as a small robot. “Hi Rhys!” It exclaimed in excitement.

A much larger and yellow coloured robot that looked more skeleton like walked up behind the small orb and greeted Rhys as well with a more flat and robotic tone. “Hi.”

Rhys smiled at the pair. “Hello Gortys, hey LB.” He pushed past them and quickly started his search through the base.

Gortys frowned following him. “What are looking for, Rhys?” She asked curiously. “You seem upset.”

“It's nothing.” Rhys replied, not wanting to worry the small robot. “I'm just looking for something important.”

“Oh! Maybe I can help, what does it look like?” Gortys asked, getting excited again.

Rhys sighed. Sure, Gortys was cute and all, but she could get annoying quickly, specifically when one was focused on more important things Gortys didn't fully understand the importance of. “I doubt you could help, Gortys. I'm looking for an old piece of Hyperion Tech, called a Fast Travel-”

“I know what that is!” She exclaimed and headed past Rhys down the hallway. “Loader Bot and I found one awhile ago! What do you need it for?”

“H-hey! Wait up!” Rhys followed her down the hall, impressed by the fact she could actually help him.

“I think it was around here somewhere...” Gortys said as she checked inside rooms and hallways that branched off of the main hall. She was zooming around too quick for Rhys to keep track of. She finally stopped in front of a smaller room, dragging something out of it. “I found it!”

“...Thanks...” Rhys said, catching up to her finally and sighing at the broken peice of metal she pulled out.

“Is something wrong?” Gortys frowned again, looking back up at Rhys. “Is this not what you wanted? Look, it even says Fast Travel on it!”

“Yeah, no, this is what I'm looking for, it's just...” Rhys looked it over. “It's broken.”

“Oh... can we fix it?” Gortys asked. “It was originally found over there on that stand!” Gortys pointed to a broken metal platform that had some plugs and wires sticking out.

 

“Maybe.” Rhys said, and tried to move the piece over to it. He struggled with it so Gortys rolled in and took over for him, dragging it to the target location with ease.

LB and Vaughn eventually caught up with them as well. “Did you find one?” Vaughn asked.

“Yeah! We did!” Gortys replied. “But... It's broken.” She sighed.

“I'm trying to see if it can be fixed.” Rhys replied to Vaughn, looking the machine over some more and studying it's wiring. “Is there any power to this section of the ship still?”

“Not much, no. Only power is to the lights, really, which has to rewired from the main hub.” Vaughn replied. “Even if you could fix it, I suppose it's no use without power.”

“Can we turn the power back on?” Gortys asked.

“That depends on how badly the power wires are damaged.” Rhys stated. “Let me have a look.” He stood up and looked around the area, his eye glowing a bright yellow as he activated his Echo Eye.

Rhys could clearly see now the main power cord that ran through the floor and walls from the Fast Travel station's wire port. It ran down the hallway and continued to extend deeper under the structure, turning a corner out of sight.

Rhys turned and looked at Vaughn. “Helios has to have more than one central power center, right?”

“I mean, it used to.” Vaughn replied. “Did you pick up a lead as to where one may be?”

“Yeah.” Rhys confirmed pointing down the hall. “It goes down that way, and then turns out of sight... I think there's a crawlspace under the floors here as well.”

“Well maybe you can follow that?” Vaughn asked and knelt down now looking at the broken Fast Travel. “If you want, I can take a look at this while you go and see if you can find another power supply... Having two would be benefit the whole base, actually.”

“I could go have a look, I guess.” Rhys replied.

“Oh! Can I come too?” Gortys asked.

“I don't see why not. Your size could prove useful.” Rhys stated, sizing Gortys up, whom could barely meet the height of his waist.

“Yeah! I'll be super useful!” Gortys smiled and looked up at Rhys. “Lead the way!”

“Be careful.” LB stated, addressing Rhys directly.

“...I will.” Rhys replied, fully aware of how protective LB could get over Gortys.

 

_______________________________

 

Rhys headed down the hallway with Gortys and walked into a darker area of the base. No one was really hanging around these areas due to the lack of power thus rendering these parts of the ship completely useless. Rhys got a bit uneasy walking through the now hollowed and abandoned Helios. He could still think back and recall when things used to be much brighter and more lively back before everything happened. Looking back on it, Helios didn't really seem like that bad of a place to be working, or living for that matter. He would be lying to himself if he were to say that he wasn't starting to feel a bit of guilt creep up from behind, reminding him of what he did to cause the ship to end up like this in the first place.

As they continued to walk through the hallways, Gortys seemed to be completely fascinated by everything. From time to time she would rush ahead of Rhys and look at something, or be reminded to keep up if she took too long looking at another thing. She found everything so cool, and this whole adventure was exciting to her as well, even if they were just going to turn on a power source.

“Hey, Rhys! Look! Old photos!” Gortys said as she whizzed past him and stopped to look at the walls.

They were littered with old Hyperion adverts and propaganda. It was a rare sight to see this kind of stuff still in tact now adays. It still hadn't been that long since the fall of Hyperion, but already most of the old Hyperion products, ads, and everything in between were already mostly destroyed or vandalized, the only explanation as to why these weren't, was simply the fact no one bothered to head down this way because of the power outage.

 

Rhys stopped now as well, looking over the old images. Memories started to leak out and clutter his mind for a few moments. Part of him couldn't help but wonder what might have been, what could have happened with Hyperion if he had taken over on his own. Where could he have brought it? Would he be better off running Hyperion and steering it down a new road that he was stuck trying to build ATLAS from the ground up again?

His mind quickly cleared as his eyes settled on a single image that instantly stood out among the others. It was of a man whom face he knew all too well, with his sleek face and smug smile. Text was plastered onto the image. _Handsome Jack, the new face of Hyperion._

All of Rhys's thoughts were replaced with nothing but regret, hatred, and anger now. Gortys noticed he was spending too much time looking at that image as well, and addressed him.

“Rhys? Who's that?”

Rhys snapped out of it and looked down at the small round robot at his side. “...No one important.”

“It says his name is Handsome Jack.” Gortys pointed out, she was able to read. “I don't know the full story but... isn't that guy that was stuck in your head?”

“...c'mon.” Rhys refused to talk about the subject, starting to walk down the hallway again.

“Rhys? You didn't answer my question... Rhys!” Gortys watched as Rhys kept on walking, purposely ignoring her. She sighed and looked the image of Jack over again, before quickly putting back on her normally happy mood and following after Rhys once again.

 

The two remained in an awkward silence as they continued on down the hallways. Passing more old objects and empty abandoned rooms. Gortys was still curious about everything, but after seeing Rhys's behaviour she tried extra hard not to step out of line. She didn't want to upset Rhys again. Gortys didn't like the silence that they had fallen into either. She honestly wanted to know why pointing out that image had upset Rhys. No one bothered to really tell her the full story of what happened with Rhys. The only thing she knew about him, was that there was something on the go with a man named Jack, a man she'd only ever heard about, and didn't know that much about, and now only saw what he may had looked like in that image. It annoyed her being left out of the loop.

She could put that aside for now though and think about it again later. Right now they had an important task they needed to do, locate power, and turn it on. The fate of Elpis was depending on them.

 

“Rhys! Look!” Gortys piped up and pointed ahead of them down the hall at a small section of panelling that was busted open and had a bit of wire hanging from it. “There's some sparks coming from that wire, that means that there's power coming from somewhere, right?”

Rhys smiled, the two of them speeding ahead to stop and examine the wire. “Yep, you're right.” Rhys praised Gortys for her spotting the wire. “Good job.” Rhys then proceeded to activate his Echo Eye and scanned the wire, now being able to see where it leads and following it. It came down from the wall and ran under the floorboards, continuing on and down around another turn out of sight.

“What do you see?” Gortys asked

“From what I can gather, it seems everything is running in the same direction under the floors through these small crawlspaces.” Rhys replied.

“Well, let's keep going then and see where they all end up!” Gortys turned to head on further down the hall but let out a small sound accompanied by a loud thunk as she had just accidentally smacked into a metal wall.

“I think this is the end of the road.” Rhys said, walking over to Gortys and rubbing out the paint smear from the metal that transferred to the spot on her head. It was actually a door she ran into that was stuck in the closed position. “This door won't open without any power going to it.”

“But where does it lead to?” Gortys questioned. “This is no fun, we were just catching onto something good!”

Rhys looked down and watched as the cord did run under the door and continued onward. He thought for a moment, then turned back around and looked at the crawlspace. “If we're going to keep following this wire, we're going to have to travel though the crawlspace.”

“Let's do that then!” Gortys rolled around the area and looked around, before quickly turning back to look at Rhys with a lopsided look. “Uh... how do we get into the crawlspace?”

“I... Don't see any way in...” Rhys frowned looking around the area. “There's nothing showing up on my Echo.”

“Awh, not another dead end already...” Gortys sighed.

“C'mon, lets head back to Vaughn and LB and tell them what we did find out.” Rhys started to head back the way they came. “I'm sure we'll find another w-w-waaaay!”

 

_Thunk._

Rhys tripped up and face planted into the hard metal flooring. Gortys rolled over to him to see if he was okay.

“Gee, your cybernetics make you very durable.” Gortys said noticing Rhys smacked his head really hard against the floor when he fell. “Are you okay?”

Rhys blinked a few times while holding his head, aside from his Echo getting scrambled for a moment he was fine. He responded once it came back into focus. “I'm fine.” He replied then looked back to see what he had tripped up in.

“It's a bundle of wires!” Gortys said, rolling in front of Rhys and looking at the area he tripped in. “Look, it goes into the floor.”

“Hmm.” Rhys said, standing up and looking at the flooring around the bundle of wires. “There may not be a direct door to get in there but... we could always make one.”

“That's a great idea!” Gortys said, rolling around Rhys now and then quickly stopping. “...How?”

“...Well we could just, uh...” Rhys knelt down again and stuck his hand in and around the base of the bundle of wires, grabbing the floor panel around it and trying to lift it up. “I'm sure if we just... tug enough it will... come loose!” He grunted, struggling to get the flooring to move.

Gortys frowned at him, and rolled by, looking at the floor panel, her optics focusing on the corer of it specifically. “Uh.” She looked back at Rhys, wanting to get his attention.

“I think I... almost got it...” Rhys was sort of preoccupied at the moment.

Gortys sighed and extended her fingers, which popped out a small screwdriver, she proceeded to unscrew the bolts on the corers of the panel.

“C'mon- whoa!” Rhys fell backwards as the panel quickly became loose and didn't take much effort at all to pop off completely. “S-see!” Rhys said, holding the panel up now and looking back at Gortys. “Got it!”

“Good job, Rhys!” Gortys replied with a smile, making him feel good about himself, even though she knew what really happened. She knew Rhys liked to feel like he was useful sometimes, so she decided she wasn't going to tell him about the bolts.

 

Rhys placed the panel aside and then moved back to look down into the new opening in the floor. It wasn't much space, enough for someone to crawl though, but that was about it. Gortys would be able to fit perfectly without any problems though.

“Looks kind of cramped.” Gortys said looking into the crawlspace, and then back up at Rhys.

“Yeah, kinda.” Rhys replied, using his Echo eye again just to double check that the wire did run through this way.

“Well, I guess it's our only option.” Gortys said and quickly hopped down. “C'mon Rhys!”

“Gortys! Wait!” Rhys didn't want to be the one held responsible if Gortys got hurt, so he quickly climbed down and followed after her. The whole crawlspace was just barely large enough for him to be able to crouch walk in, but he managed to shift though it, calling out to Gortys again. “Wait! I can't just zoom through here as easily as you ca- ow!” Rhys groaned as he hit his head again, this time against the low hanging roof of the space.

“Sorry.” Gortys turned around and waited for him to catch up. The crawlspace was even darker than the hallways, and right now the only light shining was from Gortys's optics.

“Its fine.” Rhys said as he made his way to her. Due to the darkness he took a moment now to activate his own flashlight which was built into his cybernetic arm's palm. She shone it past Gortys and down the narrow area ahead of them. “You can go ahead again, just don't go to far, and be careful.”

“Okay.” Gortys replied with a smile. “This is sort of fun, exploring new areas! Remember all the exploring we used to all do as a group? I miss that.”

“I can't really say that I miss it.” Rhys replied to the conversation starter.

“Really? But we had so much fun! We even managed to finally take out the Vault Monster after all our exploring was done. Some parts were scary, like working with Valerie, and apparently that guy that was stuck in your head, but that aside, overall I think it was pretty fun and I want to do something like that again sometime!” Gortys rambled on.

“You have an odd taste in fun, then.” Rhys grumbled, not really wanting to think on what happened in the past too much. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure!” Gortys replied, turning around and rolled backwards while continuing to talk to Rhys. “What do you want to talk about? How's ATLAS doing now that you own it? What's it like to be a CEO? Is it anything like working for Hyperion was? Do you miss it-”

 

“Gortys!” Rhys exclaimed, quickly trying to move faster as she just quickly dissipated out of sight, clunking and falling down a chute, landing with a loud crash.

“I... I'm okay!” Gortys called back as Rhys shone his light down the hole she fell into due to not looking where she was going. “Whoa, this place is cool!”

“How far of a drop is it?” Rhys asked, calling back down to her.

“Not too far, come on down!” Gortys replied. “Lots of space down here, you could stand up.”

“Alright, don't move, I'm coming down.” Rhys shifted and dangled his legs over the edge and into the opening below. He gripped tightly to the sides of the crawlspace and slowly lowered himself down. Once he was dangling he let go, landing and instantly loosing his balance from the impact, ending with a loud thump that echoed throughout the area. “I thought you said it w-wasn't a long drop!” Rhys hissed, standing crippled now and holding his knees.

“It's not... oh that's right, only your arm is made of metal... Yeah, humans may find that drop a bit steep, but you're here now!” Gortys looked at Rhys. “Sorry.”

“Okay... I'm good... I'm Good.” Rhys slowly stood up straight. “I'm starting to feel my legs again and now they are just paining.” He forced himself up straight, causing his back to crack in the process as well, letting out another small wimper.

“That's good that your legs aren't broken, cause you'll need them to climb back out of here when we're done.” Gortys said. “Look!”

Rhys shone his light around the area and uncovered a large wall full of switches, buttons, wires, and plugs. He smirked. “I think we just found the central power hub.”  
“Does that mean we can power up the fast travel?” Gortys asked with a hopeful tone.

“It's better than that.” Rhys explained. “This means we can power up the whole remainder of Helios, which I'm sure Vaughn will be more than pleased to hear.” Rhys looked the wall over carefully. “It's just a matter of figuring out what's broken and what's not, wouldn't want to overload the system and break everything.”

“But... there's so many switches... how we will know which ones are good and which ones are bad?” Gortys frowned looking the wall over.

“Eh, it's nothing a simple scan won't solve.” Rhys smiled and booted up his Echo Eye once more. He had to admit, this was probably the most useful out of all of his enhancements.

 

First Rhys finished following the cord they were following, making sure that was turned off since the wire was broken. He used the state of that switch to scan the rest and quickly weed out which ones were safe to operate and which ones would be broken. Following this method, Rhys quickly turned on all the needed switches, including the light switch for the hallways, crawlspace, and the control room they were currently standing in.

 

“Wow!” Gortys exclaimed, impressed with Rhys's work. “We can see better now!” She rolled around the area, excited, and starting to look over everything that caught her eye once again. “Hey, Rhys! What does this really big one over here do?” She pointed to the single switch that was placed on the opposite wall of the other ones.

“Let me check.” Rhys said, walking over to check the label on the switch, which was out of Gortys's eye height. Processing the label he suddenly froze, staring back at it.

Gortys picked up on his behaviour, and looked up with worry as he was asking up like he did back with the images. “What's wrong, Rhys?” Gortys asked.

Rhys's eyes glossed over the label, reading it multiple times but he was still having problems processing it, because his brain wouldn't let him remember. He refused to think too much about this one certain thing, that thing being the fact this was the power panel that was solely dedicated to Jack's office.

“It... It's broken.” Rhys lied and shook his head, putting his focus back onto the other wall and finishing up with the last of the switches that needed to be turned on. “It will always be broken...”

“Maybe we can fix all the broken switches here...Let's start with the big one!” Gortys started moving towards it.

“NO!” Rhys turned back around and snapped at her. “Don't touch it!” He quickly caught himself in his actions when he saw how Gortys responded to him. “No... no it's fine, we don't need to fix them. We have more than enough power working now.” He sighed, feeling a bit bad for having snapped at Gortys like that. “C'mon.” He changed some options on his Echo Eye and started searching for another exit, since the one they came from was now out of reach. “Let's just head back to Vaughn and LB now, we can't waste any more time.” He started to walk and leave through an exit door he located near the right hand side of the wall that had the switches.

Gortys made a confused chirp and then followed sheepishly behind Rhys, taking one last look at the large switch on the wall. “O-okay.” Gortys did as she was told.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This chapter has been revised.***


	4. Finding Another Option

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and Gortys are successful in turning on power, not only to the section they needed, but to the whole remains of the ship. While gone Vaughn took a look at the Fast Travel and realized that it was broken beyond repair and wouldn't work anymore. He informs Rhys that the only thing of value is the hard drive of the machine that was still in tact. The idea to insert the hard drive into another working Fast Travel arises. Gortys hears about Rhys planning to go to the moon and requests that she join him which in turn prompts LB and Vaughn to tag along now as well. They return to Janey's workshop to talk to Athena, who they tell about what happened with the Fast Travel. Athena leads them to a place where they would find a working Fast Travel able to read the hard drive and take them to Elpis. They run into some issues along the way, mostly due to Rhys getting a bit too cocky. The threat is dealt with thanks to some quick thinking on everyone's part. Athena leads them to another location, and the pair is on their way to the city of the resistance, known as Sanctuary.

Rhys and Gortys eventually made their way back to Vaughn and Loader Bot. Gortys rolled up to the pair excited to tell them about her short adventure with Rhys.

“Guys! Guys! Guys! Guess what we found!?” She exclaimed looking up at them.

“Judging by the fact there's light from down the hall now, I take it you find a way to reconnect power to the rest of this sector?” Vaughn replied.

“Better than that.” Rhys said walking up to the group with a wide smirk plastered on his face. “Pretty much the whole ship should have power now, well what's left of the ship anyway.”

“What?” Vaughn looked at Rhys surprised.

“It's true! Gortys confirmed. “We found the main power hub and turned on all the switches that weren't broken!”

“That's great!” Vaughn replied with a smile. “I've been looking for a reason to move more people into the actual ship so they aren't left out in tents, exposed to the weather and other things.”

“Well I guess that problem is solved then.” Rhys said. “Hey, if the power is working now though, whats the status update on that Fast Travel unit?”

 

Vaughn frowned and sighed, looking at Rhys. “Power aside, I took a look at it and it's busted. Wouldn't work.”

“...Seriously?” Rhys scowled and folded his arms. “Well now what am I suppose to do?” He questioned.

“Well... there is one other option.” Vaughn continued on. “The device is broken, yes, but... It's main had drive seems to be in tact.”

“What good is it if I can't access it, though?” Rhys raised an eyebrow.

“That's the thing, though.” Vaughn said. “You can access it, just not in this machine.”

A smile crept up on Rhys's face as he shifted. “So you're saying I could just stick the hard drive into a working Fast Travel and access all it's location points?”

“Bingo!” Vaughn smiled back at him.

“Oh... but there's another problem.” Rhys frowned again. “Where am I going to find another working station? These things are pure Hyperion, and since the downfall, I don't think hardly anything is left in tact regarding Hyperion technology.”

“Well I find that hard to believe.” Vaughn replied. “Hyperion was everywhere, I'm sure there's a few of these working still in some locations.”

“I dunno...” Rhys doubted.

“Well, you should at least _try_ to find one.” Vaughn pulled a panel off the broken Fast Travel and took out it's hard drive, handing it to Rhys. “After all, you're the one so worried the moon can pop like a balloon any second.”

Rhys took the hard drive and turned it over in his hands. “Yeah, you're right. I can't give up now.” He replied, tucking the hard drive into his coat pocket. “I mean, Athena told me to check here for this one, so... Maybe she does know of a few more?”

“Wouldn't hurt to check it out.” Vaughn shrugged.

 

“Whoa, wait a minute!” Gortys spoke up. “What are you guys talking about with the moon popping?” She looked a bit worried.

Rhys sighed. “I'd hate to worry you, Gortys, but Pandora's moon, Elpis, is at risk of exploding.” He didn't sugar coat it for her cause she was at just as much risk as everyone else in terms of getting destroyed if the moon did go off.

“O-oh...” She frowned. “That sounds like a really bad thing.”

“Yeah, it is. So that's why I need the Fast Travel.” Rhys explained. “I need to get to the moon and find out-”

“You're going to the moon!?” She smiled again and looked up at Rhys, dancing slightly. “Oh! Can I come! Maybe I can help you! I've always wanted to go to the moon!”

“I... well you-” Rhys looked at Vaughn and LB for assitance.

Vaughn stepped up. “The more you talk about it, the more I'm starting to realize this is a serious problem. Y'know, in all honestly... Maybe we should _all_ come with you?”

“You don't have to do that.” Rhys replied. “I... I have this whole thing under control, once I get a Fast Travel it'll be fine... I think.”

“Yeah, no. We're coming with you.” Vaughn shot back.

“But... what about your job as the leader here?” Rhys questioned Vaughn.

“Eh, they'll be fine. Their not completely stupid like a bunch of Psychos or anything.” Vaughn replied. “Besides, Yvette is around her somewhere too, y'know. She'll take care of things when I'm gone, plus I just hired Steve for back up as well.”

“...Who's Steve?” Rhys asked.

“Heyooo!” A man popped out of no where at the mentioning of his name, and waved at the group from the doorway.

“ _That's Steve._ ” Vaughn said.

 

Rhys sighed. “Alright, fine. I guess we do make a pretty good team.”

“Yeah!” Gortys jumped in excitement. “It's going to just be like old times again!”

“Okay, if you all insist on coming with me, we better get going.” Rhys said turning to the doorway and starting to walk, the others following behind him. “We don't have much time, well I mean, we could have a lot of time, thing is no one exactly knows when the moon could blow up, but they do know that it will eventually.”

“My calculations say it is highly likely it will in fact blow up sometime in the near future.” LB responded.

“How do you know that?” Vaughn questioned him.

“I did some scans on the state of the moon and it's internal levels are rising at a drastic rate.” LB responded. “Thought the direct cause still remains unknown.”

“So is Elpis like some kind of volcano?” Gortys asked.

“Not quite...” Rhys replied. “I mean I do know that it has lava pools and such, but I wouldn't consider it a volcanic planet. There's no major explosions happening, that we know of, just major quakes that could eventually trigger one large explosion.”

“Well then what are we doing still standing around and talking about it?” Vaughn butted in. “Let's go find Athena.”

They all piled into Rhys's car, LB a little squished but managing to get in, and Dumpy more than happy to see some friends again.

 

 

The car pulled back into the driveway of the auto-motive shop. Janey was there to greet them, seeming a little surprised to see Rhys had brought his friends. “Oi, Rhys!” She said walking up to him. “What's on the go, did ya find a Fast Travel?”

“Well... Sorta.” Rhys replied, looking back at the group. “It was broken though...”

“Oh, so now you're gonna need a shit, huh?” Janey questioned.

“No, not yet. Again, that's a lot of work for you and I'm sure we've already wasted enough time.” Rhys said. “I do need to talk to Athena again, however.”

“Oh, okay.” Janey replied and lead them into her shop. “Athena, company's here!”

 

Athena came out from the back room, she was in the process of working on her shield it seemed. “No luck with the Fast Travel?” She asked.

“Yes, and no.” Rhys explained, walking up to her and taking the hard drive out of his pocket and showing it to her. “I need your help.”

“What's that?” Athena questioned the flat cartridge in his hands.

“This is a hard drive from the broken Fast Travel Vaughn extracted for me from the remains of Helios. He had to take it out because the actual unit itself was busted, though he did say we can stick this into a different unit and access all the Fast Travel locations stored on it's hard drive.”

“Well, that's interesting...” Athena replied, laying her shield. “So, where do you plan on getting another unit from?”

“That's why I'm here. I need your help with that.” Rhys responded. “I figured since you're a retired Vault Hunter and have been to many places, that maybe you might know where to find another one?”

Athena leaned back against a wall and folded her arms, she was quiet for a moment while looking at the ground and thinking on Rhys's request. She eyed Rhys and the hard drive in his hands, then looked back over to Janey. Athena sighed, shifting and addressing Rhys again. “Well... I suppose I do know of one place we can try.”

“You do?” Rhys smiled at her. “That's great news! Where is it?”

“I can't... Tell you.” Athena replied.

“...You can't... Tell me?” Rhys questioned. “Well how are we suppose to-”

“I can't tell you how to get there, because I was asked not to share this information with just anybody.” Athena continued, taking up her sheild. “But, I can show you.”

 

“No. No, no, no, no. Absolutely not.” Janey stepped up now. “You know how I feel about you taking on dangerous tasks, Athena! You're not going with Rhys and his pals to the moon.”

“Oh c'mon, Janey-”

“No. I don't want to hear it. What am I going to do if something happens to you?” Janey crossed her arms and scowled at Athena.

Athena looked back at her, and sighed again. Smiling slightly. “Alright, I won't go to the moon, I promise.” She caused Janey to soften up a little as she took her hands. “But you at least have to let me show them where they need to go, without them stopping the moon from blowing up, both of us will die, and we can't have that now can we? How are we going to plan an anniversary if we're dead, huh?”

Janey broke eye contact and looked away. “I suppose you do make a point, don't you?” She sighed now too, letting go of Athena's hands and getting a slight tone again. “Okay, you can go, but promise you will stick to your word and come back?”

“I promise.” Athena smiled, walking over to Rhys and the group. “I'll be back in a few hours.”

“I'll be counting.” Janey replied, watching them all file out of the building. “And I swear if you don't come back like you said, I will take myself up to Elpis and drag you home.”

Athena chuckled. “I already said I'll come back, I know what you're capable of.”

“Damn right you do.” Janey finished. “Be careful, you lot!”

 

 

“...What is that?” Rhys asked staring into the sky with the rest of the group, looking up at a floating city, soaring a little ways away from the rest of the pockets of Pandora civilization.

“That...” Athena spoke. “Would be Sanctuary.” She turned to look at Rhys. “You heard of the resistance that fought against Hyperion, and Jack, Right?”

“It... rings a small bell.” Rhys replied. “I didn't look too much into it though, I just knew they were causing problems for Hyperion. What about them?”

“That's their major city.” Athena explained. “And one of the only other places you might find a Fast Travel that's still active, that I know of anyway.”

“Great.” Vaughn interjected. “Just uh, one problem.... How do we get up there?”

“Never mind that, how do we explain ourselves?” Rhys asked. “If some professional resistance soldiers live there, I have a feeling they wont take too kindly to strangers, specifically some whom formally worked for Hyperion.”

“That's why I'm with you... I know a few people.” Athena replied.

“Okay, so again...” Vaughn spoke up. “How do we get up there?”

“...Follow me.” Athena said, leaning the group into a frozen cave that was nearby.

 

“This place can be dangerous...” She said as she lead the group through the caverns and they walked into a wide open area, full of old buildings and littered with trash. “Be mindful of the _rats_.”

“Aw, I'm sure a few mice are nothing to worry about.” Rhys said, walking along.

“You'd be surprised.” Athena said, frowning at him. “We should all keep quiet now, and just keep walking. Keep looking directly straight ahead to that large landing down there.”

“Why?” Rhys questioned. “Are we going to trigger a cave in or something?”

“Y'know what, why don't you just, take my word for it. If not, you can do your own thing and find out the hard way.” Athena said, getting annoyed by Rhys's comments.

“Look, all I'm saying is I don't see the point in being so cautious. This place doesn't look very dangerous, why would it be if it leads to a major city like Sanctuary?” Rhys started to walk ahead of Athena. “If it was dangerous, something would of happened by no-whoa!”

` “Rhys!” Vaughn, LB, and Gortys quickly ran to his aid as he wasn't watching where he was going and slipped on a patch of ice, sliding down a slope that suddenly gave way under him and dropped him down onto a frozen ice lake.

“I... I'm okay!” Rhys called out, looking around the area. “See, nothing to worry about!”

 

_Crack._

The ice under Rhys suddenly started to split as the cave shook with a loud rumble. Rhys quickly attempted to get his footing, loosing balance easily on the ice and struggling to stay upright and not slide around.

“Rhys!” Athena called out. “Don't panic! Just stay calm and-”

_BOOSH!_

There was a loud shriek as a giant rock and ice monster emerged from the ground and hissed at Rhys. It started pulling up giant ice rocks and aimed at Rhys.

“Oh shiiii-” Rhys scrambled and dove out of the way, silding across the ice and watching as more ice creatures emerged in the same fashion, picking up rocks and hurling them at him.

“God dammit-” Athena rolled her eyes and quickly took to action, running past the group and to a cliff side that overlooked the frozen lake Rhys was stuck on.

Rhys found himself cornered with three of the creatures closing in on him, he had no where to go. He cussed himself out for not listening to Athena when she said it was dangerous. He should have known better. Pandora was always dangerous.

“Heads up, idiot!” Athena called out and suddenly Rhys watched as one of the monsters cried out in pain as the large crystals around it's feet were shattered. Athena jumped down and landed in front of Rhys, her shield returning to her.

“Oh thank god!” Rhys breathed a sigh of relief. “Look, I think it's safe to say I probably deserved this and I'm sorry-”

“You can apologize later.” Athena said backing up to protect him with her shield. “There's some loose rocks to the side there.” The monsters growled and readied up to start throwing rocks at the both of them now. “When I say run, you run and climb up there.”

“Right, got it.” Rhys replied, locating the rock pile Athena was talking about and already planning out how to quickly reach them and climb up them.

“Ready?”

“Yeah-”

“Run!”

“Wait, wh- You're not gonna count to three or- RIGHT RUNNING, I'M RUNNING!” Rhys quickly jumped as another rock landed and almost hit them. It was hard to get traction on the ice but he managed, reaching the cliffside.

 

He climbed up and looked back, watching as Athena battled the monsters with ease, dodging the rocks so easily, never once loosing her balance on the ice. She was a natural born Vault Hunter. He could see the look on her face as she smirked smugly and tossed her shield, knocking down a beast. She lived for this kind of stuff, and she'd never get tired of it, until the day she died.

` Rhys made it ro Rhys and the bots, who helped to pull him all the way up over the cliff side. They all watched as more monsters came out of the ground, surrounding Athena. They all cringed as they watched her accidentally slip up, as everyone eventually does, and take a hard hit, getting tossed halfway across the ice and skidding out.

 

“We need to help her.” Rhys said, pushing past the group. “Janey will kill me if she gets killed, because I was being a little cocky.”

“What do you have in mind?” Vaughn asked Rhys, following him as Rhys tracked around the area, looking for what he had on hand, trying to quickly come up with a plan.

“There's some large icicles overhead...” Rhys replied, observing the ceiling of the cave, and then eyeing a long piece of rope that was coiled up on the ground. He picked up the rope and a large rock and tied the rope end around it. “Loader Bot!” Rhys called out to him.

“Yo.” LB turned to look at him.

“Can you help her stall for time?” Rhys asked of him.

“On it.” LB responded and quickly slid down the ice cliff, guarding Athena from an attack.

“Gortys, how good are you at throwing things?” Rhys turned to her, handing over the rock and rope.

“I don't mean to brag, but since we took out that Vault Monster, I'd like to think im pretty good with things like throwing stuff!” She smiled at Rhys.

“Great.” Rhys knelt down to her eye level and pointed at a large icicle that loomed overhead of the fight. “See that one right there? I want you to hook it with that rope.”

“I'll do my best!” Gortys replied and rolled up to the edge of the cliff, Vaughn and Rhys behind her holding the rest of the rope.

Quickly, and with accurate precision, she spun around and tossed the rock, hooking the ice spike. “Got it! I got it!” She smiled back at the pair.

“Great!” Rhys smiled back at her. Good job, come help us now!”

Gortys took up the end of the rope and worked with Rhys and Vaughn as they all gave a large tug and tugged again until there was an audible crack, and the ice started to break. One more tug and it suddenly came crashing down, impaling the biggest of the creatures that was threatening LB and Athena.

 

LB took the hint and picked up Athena, they dodged another rock and climbed up onto the ice spike, the pair keeping surprisingly good balance and running up the rope to the cliff side. Rhys and Vaughn were there to meet them and pull them up. The monsters hissed at them unable to reach them, still throwing ice balls but eventually giving up with a final howl, and burrowing back under the ice.

Athena huffed, looking at the group. “Is everyone okay?”

“That was awesome!” Gortys spoke up, looking at everyone. “Sure, Rhys was a little silly and got himself into trouble in the first place, but the way you jumped down there and saved him was so cool! And then Loader Bot helped you fight as well and you took down three of those monsters, and we got a fourth with one ice spike and saved you guys!” She smiled.

“Yeah... That was quick thinking, Rhys.” Athena nodded towards him.

“I'm just glad you didn't get hurt, and sorry for not... sorry for not listening to your warnings the first time.” Rhys replied, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away with a bit of shame.

“Well I hope you've learned your lesson.” Athena replied, then turned back to head in the direction they were original travelling. “C'mon, our destination is just up ahead.”

 

She lead them over a metal bridge and they now were standing in front of a set of large metal doors. Athena walked over to the right of it and started turnning a wheel that was connected to the wall. Eventually the door opened and lead into a nice cozy little section of the cave. They all followed her in, and the door was shut behind them.

There wasn't much in this section of the cave, a few posters on the walls advertising various things, and old wanted posters that had since been defaced or faded away. To the left was an entrance to a place that seemed to be some kind of battle arena. Athena just told them not to get curious and wander in there unless they had a death wish.

Finally, to the right of them on a metal platform embedded into the ice ground of the cave was a familiar machine to Rhys. He ran up to it with excitement, looking it over.

 

“That's it! That's a Fast Travel! And it works!” He noted, running his hands over it and watching the blinking lights. “All I have to do now is just insert this hard drive and-”

“Not so fast.” Athena stopped him. “This is a Fast Travel, but not the one we are looking for. Thing's defective, only goes to one location.”

Rhys frowned at her, annoyed that they got so close only to have things ripped away again. “Aw, c'mon... You're kidding, right?”

“Don't get your panties in a knot.” Athena said walking up to the machine and activating it. “It's going to take us to where a universal Fast Travel is, which would benefit from the locations stored on that hard drive anyway.”

“Oh!” Vaughn stepped up with something finally clicking in his head. “This is how we get up to that city.”

“Correct.” Athena confirmed, smiling at him. She stood in front of of the Fast Travel unit. “Okay so, if it's anyone's first time Fast Travelling, keep your body stiff and try not to move.” She pressed a button on the machine. “That said, see you up there.”

Within a few seconds she was enraptured in a bright beam of light and suddenly was gone. All within the blink of an eye.

 

“Whoa...” Gortys said, rolling up to where Athena was standing. “She's completely gone!”

“Huh, interesting...” Rhys said looking at the machine. “I guess it just... deconstructs your body and reconstructs it somewhere else... fun.” He seemed to be a bit sheepish about the whole concept now.

“I'm sure it's safe.” Vaughn replied, picking up on his friend's behaviour. “Athena wouldn't bring us here and use it herself if it _wasn't_ safe.” He pressed a button on the machine. “See, nothing to it, just keep stiff and don't- AHHH-”

Vaughn disappeared the same as Athena, except screaming the whole time.

“Oh my god!” Rhys exclaimed, stepping back and panicking now. “He screamed, he just screamed. Something went wrong, terribly so. What if he's scrambled some where? What if he's dead!?”

LB ignored Rhys's reaction and stepped up next, pushing the button and shoving Rhys out of the way. “Do not be such a baby.” He commented and dissipated in a flash.

“Ohh! I want to try! I want to try!” Gortys rolled up to the machine and hopped to hit the button, rolling back into place and standing still. “C'mon Rhys! I bet this is going to be fuuuuuu-”

She was gone now too.

Rhys was pretty much left alone in the cave now, the only company he still had was Dumpy, who was still tagging along this whole time. He looked at the small robot who just beeped, and then looked back at the Fast Travel machine. The place was eerily quiet now without his friends. They all just left him there, and Vaughn defiantly made him worry with how he screamed like that. Rhys looked around, hearing the moans of the monsters from outside the big steel door.

“Oh, god dammit.” Rhys took a deep breath and walked up to the Fast Travel machine. He pressed the button and stepped back, keeping as still as he could, even holding his breath and praying taht nothing bad happened to him. The light quickly embraced him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This chapter has been revised.**


	5. Sorta Famous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys survives his first digi-struct and arrives at Sanctuary with his friends. Since they entered unannounced they are reprehended by a guard and taken to see the head of Sanctuary. Athena introduces the group to Lilith. Lilith is impressed by Rhys's feat in taking down Helios and easily takes a liking to him. They explain to her what they need the Fast Travel for and what their plans are. Lilith informs them that she is already aware about the situation on Elpis and wanted to do something but had to many issues on Pandora to devote time going up there herself. She allows them access to the Fast Travel and trusts the group to take care of the job for her. She also tips them off about meeting up with a friend of hers on Elpis, Mad Moxxi, who retried to a bar at the capital city of Elpis, Concordia. She claims that Moxxi will be able to give them more information and help them out. Gortys is excited to go to the moon and once they insert the hard drive into the main Fast-Travel, they are able to access the points on Elpis and thus set out on their adventure.

Rhys gasped as he was hit with the fresh air of the new area he was now in. He blinked, his eyes slowly adjusting to the area after facing the bright lights and colors of the Fast Travel process. He felt odd, a bit tingly. How long had it been since he Fast Travelled? It felt like years, but yet only a few seconds, all at the same time. His friends were there too, waiting for him.

 

“You don't have to hold your breath like that, y'know?” Vaughn smirked at Rhys.

“Vaughn! You're okay!” Rhys went to hug him.

“Uh, yeah.” Vaughn looked up at Rhys lopsidedly and pulled away from the hug. “I told you it wasn't anything to worry about.”

“B-but you screamed!?” Rhys replied.

“I was just messing with you, bro.” Vaughn chuckled. “Glad to know you cared so much for me.”

Rhys frowned at Vaughn now. “That wasn't funny! I thought you died!”

Gortys now rolled up to Rhys. “Rhys! How cool was that!” She exclaimed. “Did you find the Fast Travel fun? I did!”

Athena looked at the group. “It's always a bit odd the first time.” She said. “You'll get used to it.”

Rhys took a moment now to observe his surroundings. They were in a small building that was rusted and very worn out. A window was behind them with open doors on either side of the building. “Where are we?” He addressed Athena.

“Follow me.” She said and lead everyone out of the building and into the sunlight. They walked into a large clearing not too far from the first building. There was more buildings around them lined off in different sections. In the middle of the clearing straight of head of them was something that looked similar to that of some sort of major power core. “This...” She gestured to the environment. “Is Sanctuary.”

“Wooooooooow!” Gortys commented, looking around, she really was excited.

 

Suddenly there was a voice. “Hey! You lot!” A man walked up in heavy armour, stopping in front of the group. He had a rifle in his hand. “We weren't made aware that we were to expect any visitors.”

Athena stepped up. “It's fine, I'm a friend of your commander.” She said.

“Y'know Lilith?” He questioned. “She didn't mention anything about any guests showin' up.”

“We're unannounced.” Athena replied. “If you don't trust me, go fetch her, I need to speak to her anyway.”

The man seemed to scowl under his helmet and then shifted, looking at the robots, mainly eyeing LB. “Isn't that thing a _Hyperion_ tin can?” He questioned.

Athena looked at LB then back to the man. “Yeah, don't worry about it. He's harmless, defective like a Claptrap unit.”

“Hey.” LB spoke, offended by that comparison.

The man sighed. “Alright, fine. I mean, if yer not trustworthy, I suppose Lilith will dispose of you herself.” He motioned for them to follow him. “This way.”

 

The man lead them to the left of the plaza area, down a small pathway to a building that was tucked away in a nook of the city. He walked up the stairs and stopped to speak with the other guard that stood there. He explained what was going and then the guard let them all in. As they walked through this new building, two more guards walked up behind, following the group just to make sure they didn't try and pull anything.

The group passed by a messy lab like area, with papers scattered everywhere as well as random pieces of technology which none of them could guess what it was for. There was also a black haired woman who was working away, but she didn't even seem to notice the large crowd walking in and past her, now heading up the stairs.

The man took them into a larger room, which had a few computers and other odds and ends. The large table in the middle with the map of this region of Pandora on it gave the impression that this was meant to be some sort of central command centre. He asked them to wait near the door of the room, as he walked further in, crossing to the other side where an open balcony was, looking over the rest of the city. He addressed the person standing there, a pale red haired woman with strange blue tattoos that ran up the side of her body and down one arm. She stood back on to them as she listened to the man explain what was going on.

 

“You have company...” The soldier addressed the woman, standing straight and waiting for her response.

“I wasn't expecting guests.” Lilith replied, looking over her shoulder now, staring back at the man.

“Says they're friends of yours... though if you think otherwise I'll have them taken care of.” The soldier replied, shifting his rifle in his grip.

“No... No I'll deadl with it.” The woman responded and then stood up from her leaning position, placing a hand on her hips. “Send them in.”

“Okay.” The man left the room and nodded to the group, then stepping outside of the command room.

 

Athena went first and walked in, the rest following suit and lining up behind her as she stood to face the woman's back in the doorway of the balcony. She spoke up. “Hey, It's been awhile... I see you've upped security.”

The woman seemed to relax at the sound of Athena's voice. She slowly turned around to face the group, confirming her suspicions on who she thought the voice belonged to. She also quickly scanned over the rest of the new faces behind her.

“...Athena?” She questioned. “What are you doing here...?”

“I'm just helping out a few friends of mine.” Athena replied, and motioned to her friends behind her.

“And who _are_ these friends of yours?” The woman asked, looking everyone over more carefully now. “You know how I feel about strangers just entering here at will.”

“I know, so let me introduce you so they aren't strangers anymore.” Athena said and pulled Rhys forward. “This is Rhys, the new CEO of ATLA... IF you don't reconized him, you should because... This is the man that's responsible for Helios's downfall.”

The woman looked surprised at first and then her tone and look softened even more. She smiled at him. “You're kidding me?” She fully walked up to Rhys, taking to him directly now. “You're the one who took down Hyperion single handed?”

“Well I... I did have some help.” Rhys replied, looking over his shoulder back at his friends.

“I don't believe it...” She said. “We've been trying to figured out what happened exactly for a year now.”

“Well I guess now you know.” Rhys replied and laughed nervously.

“If it's true, then I guess its an honour to meet you.” The woman extended a hand to Rhys, which he hesitated to take at first, but eventually took. “Name's Lilith.”

“Rhys.” Rhys replied, and then motioned to his friends. “And this is Vaughn, Loader Bot, and Gortys. I assume you already know Athena.” They all waved at Lilith.

“Nice to meet you all.” She replied, then looked back at Athena. “What buisness do you have here?”

 

“We're interested in using your central Fast Travel.” Athena explained. “Also, I believe I have an I.O.U. that still needs to be filled out.”

Lilith tilted her head to the side. “Alright, I'm listening.”

“Rhys.” Athena motioned for him to give her the hard drive. He took a moment to find it in his pockets and then handed it to her. She gave it to Lilith. “This thing has Fast Travel way points to places on Elpis, such as Concordia, ripped directly from the ruins of Helios.”

Lilith turned the hard drive in her hands and then looked back to Rhys. “So I take it you know then... about the quakes?”

“Yeah.” Rhys confirmed. “A friend of mine is up there currently and told me about what's going on... she wants me to try and help.”

“Well, can you?” Lilith asked, handing him back the hard drive.

“I don't know for sure yet.” Rhys replied. “I have lots of tech at my disposal from ATLAS, but I need to get to Elpis to find out exactly what's going on before I can attempt to find a soultion.”

“I see...” Lilith turned and walked back out to the balcony. “So you need our Fast Travel with those points to get up there, huh?”

“That's the current plan, yeah.” Rhys replied and followed behind Lilith, keeping a respectful distance though.

“Y'know, I'm really busy with a lot of things here on Pandora right now.” Lilith replied. “I've spend most of my time fighting what was Handsome Jack, and we were also working on taking down Hyperion entirely after he died, but it seems you beat us to that one already.” She looked over to Rhys who was standing slightly behind her. “Bot now that the big things are out of the way, lots of smaller things are starting to pop up all over the place... And we're the closet thing Pandora's got to some sort of law enforcement and responsible for keeping things safe. I had it mostly under control, but just as I think things are going well, the goddamn moon decides it wants to try and blow up.”

 

“Wow, sounds like you really have your work cut out for you.” Rhys replied. “I'm hoping I can help in keeping the last thing on that list from happening.”

“Let's hope so.” She turned around again and walked through the board room, heading down the stairs, expecting Rhys and the others to follow her. “How about we start by getting that hard drive installed?”

“I'll leave the rest to you then.” Athena said, going on ahead of them to use the Fast Travel again. “I'd love to come along but I already promised Janey I'd come back home, and y'know she'd kill me if I didn't stick to that.”

“Thanks for the help!” Rhys called out to her. She nodded before she left.

“Right then, unless anyone else has anywhere to go, have at it Rhys.” Lilith said, standing aside and leaning against the wall, watching him work.

“Okay, let's have a look.” Rhys booted up his Echo eye once more and scanned the machine, looking it over for correct ports to plug the hard drive into. He quickly located it and slid the cartridge in, the machine turned on and off again.

“New Waypoints available!” The robotic voice of the machine announced.

“Well that was easy.” Rhys replied, and looked at the map which now showed Elpis as a travel destination.

“So that's it then?” Lilith questioned. “You're just going to head up and check it out?”

“I guess so.” Rhys replied.

 

“Well, good luck I suppose.” Lilith moved away from the wall and stood up in front of the group. “I'd come with you, but I have a lot of things to take here of here that need my attention.”

“I understand.” Rhys responded to her. “But hey, you helped us out a lot by letting us use the Fast Travel.”

“Yeah...” Lilith stuck her hands into her pants pocket and pulled out a small computer chip. She handed it to Rhys. “Here.”

“What's this?” He asked, looking at it.

“you have Echo Technology.” she observed. “Plug that into your communicator, you can use it to contact me directly.”

“Oh... thanks!” He smiled and popped a panel on his arm, plugging in the chip and closing it again.

“If things look like they are taking a turn for the worst, let me know.” Lilith explained. “Like, if you think it's gonna pop like a zit, a warning call to let me know to start evacuating the city would be nice.”

“I'll be sure to do that if things go south.” Rhys replied. “But, hopefully I won't have to.”

“That's all I have to say on the matter then.” Lilith backed up again and stood to watch them leave. “Good luck, and I hope we can talk more when you get back. I wnt more details on what happened to Helios.”

“I'll tell you everything I know.” Rhys stated, and then turned to face his group. “You guys ready?”

“Yeah! Let's go!” Gortys rolled up eager to press the button again, but Rhys stopped her.

“H-hold on, we need to pick where we're going first. There's like fifteen new Waypoints...” Rhys explained to her.

“Didn't Fiona tell you where to go?” Vaughn questioned.

“No... I sorta forgot to ask.” Rhys frowned, feeling the weight of everyone's disappointing stares.

“Try Concordia.” Lilith suggested. “That's the capital city up there. If your friend is just visiting, chances are they are around there.”

“Thanks, again.” Rhys replied to Lilith and brought up the Fast Travel map, looking over the locations for the one listed as Concordia, proceeding to select it.

“Now can we go?” Gortys looked up at Rhys.

“It should be good now.” Rhys replied.

“Yay! Me first this time!” Gortys rolled up and jumped to hit the button, landing back down and waiting for the light to consume her. She disappeared instantly once more. LB stepped up and followed behind her.

“Elpis is a little bit of a ways, away.” Lilith stated. “So be weary of that, the trip may seem a bit longer. Just don't move when you feel your body dismembering.”

“Oh, I'm sure that'll be fun.” Vaughn walked up next and pressed the button. “C'mon Rhys, don't be left behind again.”

“Thanks once again for all of the help.” Rhys thanked Lilith now for a third time.

“Don't mention it.” Lilith responded. “Anyone who was able to destroyed Hyperion like that, I'd be glad to help any time.”

“I'll be sure to repay the favour.” Rhys replied, and stepped up to the machine.

“Say hi to my pal Moxxi for me.” Lilith requested. “She decided to keep her main bar up there.”

“I will.” Rhys pushed the button and waved at Lilith, not as afraid of the Fast Travel as he once was.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This chapter has been revised.**


	6. Welcome to Concordia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fiona and Sasha are talking about how Rhys was taking awhile to show up as well as what the cause of the quakes might be whilst studying a map. Rhys arrives with co to a police station that is meant to greet guests from Pandora to Concordia. They run into trouble with a very strict and very stupid unreasonable Claptrap unit and eventually due to refusing to pay a outrageous fine Rhys is beaten up by a gang of the robots and tossed into Concordia's holding cell until the amount value of his ticket is waited out. Fiona calls to check in on Rhys and find out how he's doing only to find out he's been arrested. Fiona and Sasha show up shortly to the police station and help to get Rhys out of the cell and everyone out of paying their fines. They lock the Claptrap in the cell instead. The girls have a laugh at Rhys being trapped and then they lead the group back to the bar they were talking at to figure out a plan.

“Fi, I think you should just give up.” Sasha sighed, leaning back in the bar seat, sipping her drink. She was looking across the table at her sister whom was scanning a map and still making out things on it. “The Vault was a bust, let's just pack up and go home.”

“There's a bigger issue than the Vault thing, Sasha.” Fiona looked up from her work. “The whole moon is at risk of blowing up, if you've forgotten.”

“I don't see why that's suddenly our problem now?” Sasha rolled her eyes.

“Because, there's no point in going home. If the moon blows up, we'll be killed either way.” Fiona explained. “The least we can do is find a way to stop it so we can actually live.”

“There's nothing we can do, though. The quakes are probably from volcanic activity, which we can't stop.” Sasha replied. “look here.” She took one of the markers Fiona was using and drew on the map of Elpis. “The quakes and ruptures are all along areas like this.” She marked them out with large X's. “When you connect them, they appear along what should be Elpis's plates, which makes sense. It's just the planet going through it's natural disaster cycle.”

“Yes, but Elpis didn't used to have all these cracks and 'plates', that's what you're forgetting... this isn't natural.” Fiona replied. “Elpis used to be a cold moon.”

“Well not its hot _and_ cold.” Sasha replied. “What do you want to do? Cool down the core and hope it stops the eruptions?”

Fiona looked at Sasha.

“No... Sis, no. Fiona, no. It's not possible. Where do you think we're getting enough ice to do that?” Sasha sighed. “No.”

“Well I mean that would work... maybe?” Fiona said. “But as you said, where are we getting enough ice to do that?”

“No where near here.” Sasha said. “Hey, didn't you call Rhys? Is he planning on showing up?”

“Yeah, I did.” Fiona confirmed. “I was hoping he'd be able to help, but then again, I have no idea how he was planning to make it up here.”

“Ugh, he's probably too busy with his new CEO job to care anyway.” Sasha frowned. “I mean, you know how eager he was to rule Hyperion when that whole incident happened with Jack.”

“I'm sure Rhys witnessed first hand what power can do to someone, if you let it go to their head.” Fiona replied, folding the map up and finally touching her now lukewarm drink. “All we can do right now is just wait and see... I'll try calling him again in a little bit.”

“Whatever.” sasha said and took another sip of her drink.

 

 

“Look, I told you we weren't aware of any rules or regulations.”

Rhys walked into a heated conversation between Vaughn and a small blue Claptrap unit with a police hat.

“All unauthorized guests are not permitted in Concordia without propper passports per new world regulations!” The small robot exclaimed. “If you refuse to cooperate, I will have no choice but to detain you!”

“What's going on here?” Rhys stepped into the conversation, looking at Vaughn.

“This dumb robot wont let us into the city.” Vaughn folded his arms and frowned.

“Oh?” Rhys crouched and looked at the Claptrap. “Hey uh, let me explain what's going on.”

The Claptrap held one of it's robotic hands up to Rhys, stopping him. “Ah, ah ah, human! I do not care for your silly well thought out explainations that are actually excuses to convince me to break the law for you!” He suddenly took out a note pad and wrote up a ticket for $1000, handing it to Rhys. “Trying to mislead and convince a cop, for shame.”

“Oh, what the fuc-”

Another ticket for $2000 was written and handed to Rhys. “Public profanity! You want to test me, buddy!?”

Rhys scowled and snatched the ticket, gripping it in his fist and standing up now, looking at Vaughn who was also just as annoyed and had a few tickets of his own.

“Alright you bunch of unlawful rule-breakers! Follow me to the ticket pay off station.” The Claptrap rolled on its wheel ahead of the group, leading them into a small office area. It jumped up onto a char behind the desk, and looked at them. “Now, who's first?”

 

“I am not paying $3000 for stupid tickets.” Rhys exclaimed and crumpled them, tossing them into the nearby trash.

“I'll admit, this seems like a bit much...” Vaughn commented, looking over his tickets.

“So you won't pay the law, eh?” The robot looked at Rhys. “Well I guess you leave me no choice!” He took out his bat and started hitting Rhys. “Get in the slammer, you ruffian!”

“Ow. Hey quit it! Quit it!!!” Rhys exclaimed, trying to block himself from the slightly painful, more annoying, smacks from the small robot.

“We have a resister... requesting back up... REQUESTING BACK UP.” The Claptrap called into a radio it had attached to it's hull, and suddenly 2 more just like him rolled into the room, beating Rhys down.

“Vaughn do something!” Rhys cried out, curling up into a ball now to try and protect hismelf from the wacks.

“Ah... right... hey could you guys like... not do that...” Vaughn stepped up to the group of robots and tried to take the bat from one of them.

“Time to use extreme measures!” The head Claptrap exclaimed and took out a taser.

“No, don't!” Vaughn was held back by the other two as the Claptrap zapped Rhys with the device.

“THIS. IS. WHAT. HAPENS. WHEN. YOU. DISS. RESPECT. DA. LAW.”

 

Rhys woke up, sore in every part of his body and feeling a bit dizzy. He blinked and looked around to find himself sitting on the floor of some sort of small room, with nothing but a small bed and a single window. He suddenly tried to sitting up, slipping and falling back down. He hadn't fully regained his senses yet. He leaned leaned back against the wall. “Ow...” He groaned, holding his head.

“How ya doing?” Vaughn asked, standing in the doorway out side of the room Rhys was in.

“Horrible, all I remember is this weird dream where we went to Elpis to stop the moon from going boom, and I got attacked by a bunch of goddamn Claptraps.”

“That... sadly wasn't a dream.” Vaughn motioned to the group and the claptrap that was next to him, looking back at Rhys.

“What.” Rhys looked around and it was now he realized he was in a holding cell. “Oh for the love of-”

“I hope now you've learned your lesson!” The Claptrap exclaimed at Rhys through the force field that kept him locked in the room. “Now you're going to sti there for a few weeks and think about what you learned, and wait until your debt is payed off.” The robot rolled off and went to sit back at it's desk.

“Sorry.” Vaughn spoke up, looking Rhys over. “I tried to stop them before they took out the taser, but it was too late.” He shrugged. “Hope it didn't scramble your circuits too badly. I tried to explain to the stupid thing about you but-”

“No, its fine.” Rhys sighed and stood up again, managing to stay upright this time, walking towards the door to talk to Vaughn more. “The thing's an idiots, what can you do?”

“Fair enough, but now we have a problem.” Vaughn continued. “I tried to explain that the moon is going to blow up and we're all here to help but the robot still won't listen. So the problem is, he wont let you go, and we kinda need you to keep the moon from blowing up.”

“You can't just knock him out and pop a switch somewhere?” Rhys frowned.

“I tried looking around but I can't find anything to work with.” Vaughn replied. “There's one button that needs an access code that only the Claptrap knows, so I can't put him out of commission or anything, because he has that code.”

“Well great.” Rhys huffed and crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. “Now what?”

“Dunno.” Vaughn shrugged. “I'll keep trying to talk to him and get the access code from him, maybe.” Vaughn walked away from the door.

 

“Freaking Claptraps... idiots... worst mistake Hyperion ever made, aside from Jack.” Rhys grumbled to himself. “I'm trying to save the moon and here I am detained in a holding cell...”

There was the sound of an incoming call on his Echo. “Rhys! Where are you?” It was Fiona.

“I'm in a jail cell, that's where I am.” Rhys replied reluctantly.

“...What do you mean you're in a jail cell? What did you do?” Fiona questioned. “I thought you were going to try and get to Elpis.”

“I am on Elpis.” Rhys replied. “Just got here about... an hour ago?” He guessed the time, not exactly sure how long he was knocked out.

“Well then what did you do?” Fiona asked again.

“The stupid law enforcement put me in a cell for “breaking” the law.” Rhys complained. “I don't even know what law we broke exactly, he just wouldn't tell us and kept giving us tickets.”

Fiona sighed. “You're always getting into trouble, aren't you?”

“well to be fair, you could of warned us about the most useless security guard ever.” Rhys shot back.

“I don't know what your problem is. Sasha and I just talked our way in, no problem.”

“Huh, of course you did.” Rhys smirked. “Once a con artist, always a con artist.”

“Once a smartass, always a smartass.” Fiona chuckled slightly shooting back at Rhys. “Stay put, Sasha and I are on the way.”

“Great. Maybe then can get you out of there.” Vaughn replied who had tuned into the last bit of the conversation. “And help me talk my way out of paying for these tickets.”

 

Within a few minutes a pair of women walked in. They walked up to the desk and then turned to face Rhys and the rest of the gang.

“Hey.” The taller one in the black coated outfit spoke to them. “It's been awhile.”

“Fiona!” Gortys rolled up to Fiona and gave her a hug around the legs. “It's been so long, I missed you!” She looked at Sasha. “And you too, Sasha! I missed the both of you.”

Fiona laughed. “We missed you too Gortys.” She looked at Vaughn and LB. “Wasn't expecting all of you to show up, even Dumpy is here.” The small robot that had been quietly tagging along with the group this whole time let out a small glitched chirp.

“We came to help!” Gortys replied, pulling away and looking up at them.

“We can use all the help we can get.” Sasha replied, then eyed the holding cell where Rhys was and walked over to it.

Rhys shifted and lost his annoyed pout as he stood up away from the wall and walked up to the door to meet Sasha, smiling at her. “H-hey.” He spoke. “It's uh... it's been awhile.”

“It has.” She smiled back.

“How have things been?” Rhys asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot slightly.

“Good, aside from the moon potentially blowing up.” Sasha joked. “Let's get you out of there, then we'll catch up. Kinda awkward talking though a cell with a criminal.”

Rhys scoffed. “Which one of us is the criminal?” He kept smiling though, and watched as Sasha rolled her eyes at him and then headed back over to the desk to stand with her sister.

 

“Oh!” The robot looked up at them. “It's you two again! What can I do for you lovely ladies?”

Fiona started off.” Ahem, well it seems there has been a major misunderstanding.” She said. “Y'see we were expecting our friends to show up and it seems you've detained them for no reason.”

“You mean you're friends with that guy?” The Claptrap questioned. “I don't know why you would want to be friends with someone like him. He's a rule breaker!”

“Oh yes, he's very bad.” Sasha followed up. “But see, that aside he is a very... very important person.”

“Oh really?” The robot folded it's arms. “I don't care who he is, even if he's a celebrity, he broke the law.”

“Oh, but here's the thing, don't you realize you're breaking the law too?” Fiona picked it back up.

“What!? That's impossible!” The Claptrap said up in it's seat. “Explain to me how I am breaking the law?”

“Concordia law states that all unexpected guests are to show up with proper ID and valid reasoning for visiting or otherwise be fined... That's true...” Fiona smirked. “But, _we were expecting these guys_ , so they are no longer unexpected visitors. Because of that, it is against the law to detain fully expected guests!”

The Claptrap thought for a moment, looking down. “Huh... That... Does make sense, doesn't it?” The Claptrap hopped down from his seat. “I should write a ticket to whoever decided to violate that law!” He took out his ticket book and wrote it up, addressing the ticket to himself. “Here you go, sir! Hopefully this will make you think before you break the law the next time!” He proceeded to take the ticket from himself and looked it over. “What! Five grand!? I'm not paying that-” He suddenly paused, gasping in horror. “Oh no! I'm breaking another law! Not paying the tickets is a major offence. Oh for shame! I must abide by the law and lock myself away.”

The Claptrap rolled over and unlocked the holding cell, rolling in and pushing Rhys out ahead of him. “Out, get out! This criminal needs to be punished for his crimes!” And suddenly the cell door closed, locking the Claptrap in on the other side of it.

 

“Wow... That was easy.” Rhys commended the girls for their quick work.

“Never under estimate the skills of professionals.” Fiona smirked.

“Hey... Wait a minute...” The Claptrap spoke up again. “There's special exceptions for police force, they can break the law to make sure the law is enforced on others... Like speeding to catch someone breaking the speed limit!” The robot tried to leave the cell but instantly banged it's head against the force field, falling over on it's back from the impact. “Well sh*t.”

The group laughed. “C'mon, let's get out of here.” Sasha lead the group out of the police station. “We'll talk more at the bar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This chapter has been revised.**


	7. The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls give Rhys some more information about the experience on Elpis and they start thinking about a plan. They are interrupted by Moxxi who, after introducing herself to Rhys and the group experiencing another violent quake, gives them even more information as well as the backstory about Elpis and the DALH attacks, as well as some more details on Handsome Jack that leaves Rhys even more curious about his past than ever before. She leaves them with a theory as to what's causing the quakes and the suggestion to head to the core of Elpis, around the area where the Eye of Helios constantly blasted at the surface drilling a hole into the center of the planet. The group set out to see what they can find.

The group walked into the bar. Fiona and Sasha lead them over to the connected wall booth where they were originally sitting and they all sat down.

“So, how did you enjoy your 'warm' welcome to Concordia?” Fiona asked, smirking at Rhys from across the table.

Rhys rolled his eyes. “Oh, it was just lovely to be greeted in such a wonderful matter by the ever so helpful welcoming committee.”

Fiona chuckled. “Anyway, let's get down to business, shall we?”

“Yeah. What information have you gathered so far?” Rhys asked, laying his hands on the table in front of him, giving the girls his full attention.

Fiona pulled out the rolled up map she was working on beforehand. She spread it out on the table. “I've marked out all the places where volcano and lava flows are, along with where the earthquakes have hit.” She pointed to her markings on the map.

Rhys took the map to have a closer look, carefully examining Fiona's work. “This looks just like a plate map.” Rhys stated, looking back up at her.

“That's what I said!” Sasha chimed in. “I'm tell you guys, it's just volcanic activity.”

“If it were volcanic activity, people wouldn't be freaking out about the moon blowing up without warning.” Fiona replied.

“She could be right, though.” Rhys spoke. “It could just be Elpis going through it's natural cycle.”

“I could understand that if things were normal, ut the quakes are happening more frequently, and getting more and more aggressive each time.” Fiona pointed out.

“Well, I'm not really sure what you want me to do here, Fiona.” Rhys said and leaned back in the booth. “It's not like we can freeze Elpis's core, if this is the cause of the quakes.”

 

“You'd be surprised what's possible here on Elpis.” A new voice spoke towards the group. A woman dressed in a quite revealing purple dress and a top hat with makeup came over to their table. “Can I get you folks anything?” She asked.

“O-oh.” Rhys and Vaughn both looked up at the woman who was offering them something to drink. They quickly went red faced as they both just stared at her.

“I... think we're good, thanks Moxxi.” Sasha said, rolling her eyes at the men's natural behaviour.

“...Yeah th-” Rhys shook his head and came back to his senses. “Wait, you're Moxxi?”

“Yep, that's my name, Sugar.” Moxxi replied with a soft smile. “I run the bar here.”

“I have a s-small message for you.” Rhys continued on, the nickname of Sugar already tangling him in the spider's web again. He didn't know it could get this hard to keep direct eye contact with someone while speaking. “Lilith wanted me to say hi for her so uh... H-hi?”

“Smoooth.” Vaughn whispered, nudging Rhys in a teasing manner.

“You know Lilith?” Moxxi responded, and slid into the booth now, sitting next to Fiona and across from Rhys. “I take it you must be Rhys?”

“U-uh, yeah. Yeah that's me.” Rhys replied. “Did Lilith contact you?”

“Yep, told me to be expecting guests.” Moxxi continued to smile at Rhys, leaning on the table and resting her chin in her hands. “So tell me, is it really true that you're the man who took down Hyperion all by yourself?”

“Yes! Yes that was me! I did that!” Rhys smiled and sat up straighter, getting a sudden wind of confidence. “It was such a tough struggle, but y'know, I pulled through. I always pull through.”

“Wow, I'm impressed.” Moxxi quickly picked up on Rhys's behaviour. “Many have tried to pull something like that off, and until now, all of them have failed. Did you know even a small army of hand picked professionals couldn't reach the feats that you did. It's kinda hard that Hyperion's downfall is all thanks to a lil' string bean like yourself.”

“Oh... Well, y'know... It wasn't _that_ big of a deal. Was kinda easy for me actually... Hehe...” Rhys cast his gaze aside, rubbing the back of his neck and hoping he could get his blushing under control.

 

He looked back up but ended up locking eyes with Sasha instead, who leaned back in the the booth, arms folded in disapproval, frowning and shaking her head slightly at Rhys.

“Actually-” Rhys continued on now, correcting his mistake. “I had some help.” Rhys motioned to the rest of his friends that sat around him. “Everyone here had a part in helping me take down Helios. I would probably be dead if it wasn't for them.”

` Moxxi smirked, fully aware that Rhys was lying when he said he did it all himself. She appreciated the fact he had enough sense to correct that mistake. “Well, kudos to all of you then.” Moxxi looked at the rest of them. “Sounds like y'all make a pretty good team, don't you?”

“I'd like to think so.” Rhys smiled back at Sasha, who now gave him a small smile back, also proud of him for clearing things up and not being a completely asshole by taking all of the credit.

“Well then, a good team can do almost anything when they work together.” Moxxi leaned back again. “They could probably even stop a moon from exploding, if they really wanted to.”

“...You know about that too?” Rhys asked.

“I would sure hope that I know about it, Sugar.” Moxxi responded. “I kind of live here, so not knowing about if the moon was going to blow up would be a small bit of a problem for me, now wouldn't it?”

“Oh... right of course it would.” Rhys sunk down in his seat a bit, putting himself down for asking such a stupid question.

“That, and if I didn't know anything about I, I couldn't help you with it.” She smiled at everyone.

“You have some information, don't you?” Fiona asked her.

“Sure do. Lots of it, actually.”

 

Suddenly the bar shook violently as a loud rumble rose up out of no where. People started to scramble throughout the bar, hiding under tables and drinks and snacks were knocked around, some hitting the ground and shattering the dishes they were in. The group themselves were barely missed by a large piece of metal panelling that was knocked loose and came crashing down from the ceiling, landing right on top of their table.The quake was strong and lasted a good minute or so. It was a lot longer than a normal quake would of ever lasted on any other planet, such as Pandora. Eventually it did stop and everything was quiet for a moment. The bar went dark shortly after the quake stopped completely. After another minute or two people started to shift and come out of hiding, as did the group.

 

Rhys activated his light on his hand and shone it around. People were standing around, some others shining lights as well, looking at the mess that the bar was now left in.

“That one seemed to knock the power out.” Moxxi sighed and looked around at the large mess.

“Wow, you guys weren't kidding. Those quakes really are something.” Vaughn spoke, looking back at Fiona and Sasha.

“I told you we had a major problem.” Fiona replied. “Rhys was on the receiving end of one before when I called him.”

“How many more have you had since you called me?” Rhys asked looking at Fiona.

“That's the third one now.” She replied, turning to dig her map out of the rubble on the table. “That was clearly more violent than the last one.”

“Do they normally last a minute or two?” Rhys questioned.

“They never used to.” Moxxi spoke up. “Something's changed in Elpis that causes them to last this long now.”

“But the map reacts like plate boundaries do.” Sasha pointed out again. “How can this not be natural?”

“Because those 'plates' aren't natural.” Moxxi explained. “Elpis was _cracked_ many years ago, during an event called The Crackening, which many assume was caused by the DALH cooperation digging for minerals. Since the surface became cracked, the core started to leak out, which explains the volcanoes and lava pools around here.” Moxxi continued. “But they still wouldn't be the cause of the quakes, because normal plate quakes are from plates moving and clashing together, these man made plates don't move because Elpis is geostationary and also has a weak magnetic field. There is no convection currents to move the plates.”

“But that makes no sense, there's no other natural explanation for these quakes.” Rhys stated.

 

LB helped to move the large metal panel off the table and the group all sat back down.  
Moxxi sighed. “I think it's time I gave you all a short history lesson.”

“Was there something that happened to Elpis in the past?” Rhys wondered.  
“Yes, there was.” Moxxi told him. “A major event that changed the lives of many. Both for the good, and for the worst. This event went on to effect not only Elpis, but Pandora as well.”

“What happened?” Fiona asked, wanting Moxxi to explain.

“Have you ever heard the story about the DALH attacks on Elpis?” Moxxi asked them.  
“Hey, wasn't there something about DALH and Elpis that turned up in the Hyperion history books?” Vaughn turned to Rhys, seeing if he could recall it.

“...Yeah... About that...” Rhys shifted in his seat. “When I was talking to Janey she told me something pretty interesting...”

“You know about Jack already, then?” Moxxi raised an eyebrow at Rhys.

“Yes...” Rhys replied reluctantly. “I still find it hard to believe a guy like him saved the moon though.”

“Well Sugar, you better start believin' it, because now I'm about to learn you the full story.” Moxxi smiled back at Rhys.

 

“So, a couple of years ago the DALH corporation managed to somehow hijack the Helios Space Station. They took control of the eye and started shootin' lasers at the surface of the moon.” Moxxi started in. “They were trying to protect something, here on Elpis. Or at least, that's what their leader general Zarpardon claimed anyway. It was something of great value and they wanted to make sure no one got their hands on it, at whatever cost that took... which apparently was at the cost of trying to blow up the moon.”

“Was the thing they were trying to protect... a Vault?” Fiona asked her.

“It was a vault, indeed.” Moxxi confirmed. “They were trying to protect a Vault. Zarpardon and her troops were chosen by the Eridians and their Guardians to carry out that task. Y'see... there was another person on Elpis looking for the Vault as well...”  
“It was Jack, wasn't it!” Rhys guessed the answer.

“Yep, it was Jack alright...” Moxxi sighed, recalling the events. “Actually... Jack wanting to find this Vault is the cause for everything else that ended up happening because of him.” She shifted. “But back then, Jack wasn't the power hungry CEO all of you probably knew him as. No, back then he was nothing but a under appreciated engineer working under Hyperion's higher ups.”

Everyone at the tabled chuckled at the thought of that. “What I'd pay to actually see that...” Rhys stated.

“Continuing on, even though he was just an Engineer, of course Jack got wind of the Vault, and so he wanted in on it.” Moxxi continued her story. “Jack's original intentions for the Vault was to exploit it for his own personal gain, but just so he could use it to move higher up in Hyperion. He hoped finding some sort of super weapon from the Vault would finally get him some respect... If only that remained his core intentions...”  
  
“DALH had known that Hyperion having control over whatever it was in that Vault would cause a lot of problems later on down the road, and they were told by the Eridians that Jack must not get his hands on the contents of the Vault. What they did to prevent this though, wasn't exactly helpful for all us citizens here on Elpis.”  
“To stop Jack from taking the contents of the Vault they decided the only way to stop him was to destroy it before he could get to it, and that meant hacking into Helios and taking over the eye to shoot the moon until it would finally blow up.”

“Jack couldn't let them kill thousands of people just over one silly vault, so naturally he had to do something. Believe it or not but Jack was Elpis's hero. He had hired some Vault Hunters to help him look for the Vault, and when the attacks happened he put them to work in aiding him with taking down DALH. It's hard to believe someone like Jack was trying to do something good for people, but he was.”

“They eventually took down DALH and stopped the attacks, but not before a lot of damage had been done to the planet. There's barely anything left at the blast site, already exposing the lower mantel. That's when the quakes started, shortly after all that happened. DALH had done irreversible damage to the moon. But here's the thing, the quakes were only in certain areas, and were only minor and never too much to handle...”

 

“Okay wait, hold on a minute.” Rhys had to stop Moxxi. “What ever happened to Jack and the Vault? If he took down DALH, the only people stopping him from getting to the Vault, then surely he must of made it to the Vault then, right?”

Moxxi smirked. “That's a whole other story for another time, sugar.” She tilted her head to the side. “Tell you what, If you play the hero like Jack and save this moon for the second time, perhaps I'll tell you what happened to Jack and the Vault as a reward.”

Rhys frowned at her. “Oh c'mon...”

“So, DALH caused some of the quakes back then, but how does that explain what's going on now?” Sasha asked. “Why are they only now getting worse?”

“Well maybe someone is drilling at the core again?” Moxxi suggested. “If you didn't know, Elpis is filled with Moonstones, much like how Pandora is littered with Eridium. What most people don't know is that during the blasting, DALH accidentally uncovered a large Moonstone deposit. My guess is that someone eventually found out about it, and the idiot is trying to drill deeper for more of them. Seems like a logical explanation, doesn't it?”

“Well I guess there's only one way to find out.” Rhys said, taking Fiona's map and handing it to Moxxi. “Where's this site located?”

Moxxi took one of the markers and circled an area on the map. “About right here.”

“Alright then. That's where we start our investigation.” Rhys turned back to look at the rest of the group.

“Sounds like a plan.” Fiona agreed.

“Its settled then. You all head out there and see what's going on.” Moxxi smiled. “If you're gonna walk there from Concordia, that's a far ways out, however, I think there should be a Fast Travel near the front of the city, right by the beheaded statue of a former Merrif that should have a way point on it that can transport you to a location that's pretty close to the core site. Should save you a few days of walking.”

“We'll use that.” Rhys confirmed as everyone stood up now and started to head towards the door. “Thanks for the help, Mox.”

“Anytime, sugar.” Moxxi waved them off. “If y'all need anything just give me a shout. I slipped my number into Rhys's echo there during the quake.”

Rhys's face suddenly flushed at the realization of that statement, as he suddenly brought up his robotic arm and popped a panel on it, noticing an extra chip was now plugged into it. He didn't even notice her doing it.

“Uh...”

Moxxi laughed. “Good luck.” She hummed and headed back to her bar counter, getting started on cleaning up the mess the quake had caused.

“T-thanks...” Rhys closed his arm back up and quickly hurried to catch back up with the rest of the group who were waiting for him.

 

“You think she likes you?” Vaughn questioned, giving Rhys a pat on the back

“W-what? Her? No... Nooooo.” Rhys rolled his eyes and looked away, still feeling the slight heat at his cheeks.

“You like her though-” Sasha teased, butting into the conversation.

“I-I mean, she's very nice... Really nice.” Rhys replied, and then suddenly changed his tone as he caught on. “Wait! No! No, I don't mean it in that way at all!”

“God, you're such an awkward dork.” Sasha laughed and turned her back to the boys, returning to follow behind her sister.

Rhys frowned watching Sasha distance herself from them, and then he sighed again, looking away.

“Still crushing like a little schoolboy, huh?” Vaughn gave Rhys a cheeky grin.

“Shut up, Vaughn.” Rhys gave him a gentle shove and followed the group to the Fast Travel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***This Chapter has been Revised***


	8. Darude Sandstorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group make their way to the core. Rhys forgets that there's no air on Elpis. Sasha gives him an Oz Kit. While heading towards the core they get stuck in a sandstorm and to make matters worse another quake hit while they were in the storm, throwing everyone off and splitting them up. Rhys gets separated from the group. He wanders for a bit while starting to run out of oxygen. He some how manged to make his way to the core, and found an old building which he was able to open and get into, not before his air ran out though and it didn't seem like there was any oxygen in the area. Rhys passes out due to lack of oxygen.

Rhys arrived at the other end of the Fast Travel inside a small run down shack. The rest of the group shortly followed behind him, filling the small area. They were a bit slower between transfers, due to how old the Fast Travel was, but they all made it in one piece regardless.

“Yikes.” Rhys stated, watching the Fast Travel short out a little bit as Fiona was the last to load in. “Let's hope that doesn't give out on us and leave us stranded out here.”

Vaughn had a quick look at the Fast Travel machine. “Nah, we should be fine.” It suddenly let out a loud beep and sparked again. “...I think.”

“Where are we?” Sasha looked out the windows of the small shack to scan the barren and dark terrain of the moon outside of it.

“Somewhere near the core, and the Vault site.” Rhys replied, pulling up a scan of the map he had made and uploaded into his Echo. Their current location was now displayed on the map since he had synced it with the Fast Travel's map back in Concordia. “Really close to it, actually.”

Fiona frowned, now looking outside as well. “It looks pretty messy out there.” She said, observing the wasteland and dark weather that loomed overhead.

“Actually, according to where we are, it shouldn't be as dark as it is anymore, given the face Helios no longer is floating above this area.” Rhys commented.

“Well, what;s causing this weird weather then?” Vaughn questioned.

“We could go find out...” Rhys said, and started making his way towards the open doorway of the shack.

 

“Rhys, wait!” Sasha called out for him to stop, and quickly followed behind him as he walked through the doorway.

She watched as Rhys stopped outside and turned back to face her. “What- ack!” Rhys found his air source suddenly gone and he started to gasp now, unable to breathe. He fell to his knees, continuing to choke.

“There's no air on the moon, dumbass!” Sasha scolded him and quickly took out a small device from her pocket and rushed up to Rhys. She clipped it onto his shoulder near his neck and then pressed a button on it, stepping back.

Rhys gasped again, but this time took in a fresh breath of air as suddenly a bubble of it grew and covered his entire head. He could breathe again. “T-thanks...” He coughed.

“You should of known better than to just rush out onto the surface of the moon like that.” Sasha frowned at him.

“Yeah... yeah you're right. Sorry.” Rhys accepted the hand she offered him, getting back up onto his feet. “I just assumed since Concordia had air, it wasn't a problem. The thought of it not being anywhere else hadn't occurred to me.”

“Well now you know.” She replied. “Also, that thing I just gave you is called an Oz Kit. They can only store so much oxygen at any time, so keep an eye to it to make sure you don't suddenly run out. It will automatically refill whenever you're in an oxygen bubble, like the one the shack is in back there.”

“Okay, got it.” Rhys nodded, understanding the basics of how the kit worked.

“Oh, also you can do this at the cost of some oxygen.” Sasha suddenly smirked and took a running start to jump, and then get a boost of oxygen to help her preform a double jump. “Whoo!”

“Awesome!” Rhys smiled and watched her float on ahead of him.

“Ooh! Ooh! I wanna do that too!” Gortys rolled up next to Rhys, also watching Sasha float around.

“Sorry Gortys, but you'll need an Oz Kit to do that, and right now we only have enough for Rhys and Vaughn.” Fiona spoke up with an apologetic frown.

“Awh...” Gortys frowned now too.

“Hey, don't worry about it.” Sasha returned to the group. “These things are supposed to be pretty much everywhere so when we find some more you can have one to play with, Gortys.”

Gortys smiled again. “Yay! Thank you!” She gave Sasha a quick hug.

 

“Huh, that's weird.” Vaughn stepped outside and looked up at the sky. It was full with some sort of dust. “Its almost like a smog or something is hanging around in the atmosphere here, and its so thick, there's no light from the stars getting through.”

“Well I guess that explains why it's so dark here.” Rhys replied. “Must be left over moon dust from all the blasting they did.”

“Probably.” Vaughn agreed. “Well, which way to the core?”

Rhys brought up his map once more and took a look. “Um... That way I think.” He pointed in a direction.

“Alright, let's head out.” Fiona took the lead and the group set off on a journey towards the core.

 

____________________________________________________________

 

 

“Are you sure we're going the right way?” Sasha questioned as she struggled to push through the harsh winds and dust that had started to pick up.  
“The map apparently says it's the right way.” Rhys replied, struggling to see it in front of his own face. “Though the signal is getting a bit weak due to this sudden storm.”

“What's causing the weather to be like this!?” Fiona asked. “It's almost like the closer we get, the worse it gets.” She slid back slightly in the sand as the strong gust of wind pushed her back with the group. “How can there be wind if there's no air!”

“It's just pent up momentum from the blasting.” Vaughn explained. “It's not really wind.”

“Cool! I don't care!” Sasha spoke up. “Guys, I think we should turn back.”

“Its fine!” Rhys said, forcing his way through the sand and dust. “It's just a bit further now and we will be there!”

“Yeah okay, but think about this... What do we do if another quake happens to hit and we're this close to the core!?” Sasha exclaimed. “Rhys, you're going to get us all killed if we keep going. There has to be a safer way to do this!”

“I'm the one going to get us all killed?” Rhys scowled. “Hey, your sister over there was the one who called me for help in the first place!”

“Well excuse me for thinking Mr.Hotshot CEO of ATLAS over here could maybe possibly do something to stop everyone from dying!” Fiona snapped.

“Guys! Can we not fight right now!?” Vaughn requested as the wind and dust got even stronger now, halting their progress. “I...I feel almost as if this is the start of some sort of sandstorm...”

“Stick together and we'll be fine!” Rhys explained. “Just, don't loose sight of anyone!”

“Uh... Where's LB and Gortys!?” Sasha looked around the area seeing that the two bots were already missing.

“They were just with us literally a minute ago.” Vaughn stated and looked behind him, calling out. “LB! Gortys! You still with us!?”

There wasn't any response. Rhys sighed. “Ugh, we'll have to go back now to find them.” He started to walk back but suddenly lost his footing as there was a loud rumble blow them.

 

“Oh no!” Sasha exclaimed. “Rhys, it's another quake!”

Rhys was starting to panic now, trying to pick himself up from the dirt and keep a balanced stance again. “Uh... J-just try to keep your balance!” He exclaimed, focusing on doing so himself as the ground continued to shake around them. “Don't fall down or anything and don't-”

“Rhys!” Sasha screamed as there was the sound of ground cracking apart close by.

“S-Sasha!” Rhys tried to go towards the sound of her voice, but quickly lost sight of her as a large dust cloud rolled in over the group. He went to turn back to Fiona And Vaughn to check and see if they were alright, but he couldn't see them now either.

“Guys! Where are you!?” Rhys called out, walking in a direction looking for his friends. “Guys!?”  
No response was heard now, just the harsh sound of the dust rushing by and the rumbles and cracks of the breaking terrain. Rhys was actually starting to get a little scared now.

“Shit! Guys if you're playing a joke this isn't funny!” Rhys really hoped it was just a joke and they were all okay. He tripped thanks to a broken piece of rock and fell back down into the dust. He struggled to lift his head up and look around, everything around him now as pure black with the thick storm around him. “Guys! I'm over here! Sasha! Fiona! Vaughn!... ANYBODY!?”

 

Rhys waited for a moment. Again, he received no response. He made a decision to take matters into his own hands now, forcing himself back up once more and looking around. It was so bad he literally couldn't see his own two hands in front of him now. There was nothing but the thick blackness of this terrible storm, and it was near impossible to hear if there was anyone else looking for him due to the quakes and dust rushing past him.

Suddenly one voice did reach his ears, though it wasn't a familiar one. It was robotic and alerted him of his oxygen levels... It was the computer in his Oz Kit kicking in. He was starting to run low on oxygen.

“Can this get any worse!?” He claimed in anger, continuing to wander on mindlessly into the black abyss that now surrounded him.

Rhys decided to check the map on his Echo, hoping he could see where his friends were on it. He didn't pick up their location signals anymore, but the map did tell him that he was close to the Vault site and that also meant he was very close to the core.

“There's no way they found their way to the core without me...” He stated to himself, trying to decide on weather or not he should turn back. “...I'm sure they are fine. We've all gotten though much worse situations than this.” Rhys started to push onwards. “I need to get to the core and... I need to stop the moon from breaking apart, because if my friends are lost in the sands or not, they won't survive if the moon pops like a balloon.”

“Warning, 10 minutes of oxygen remaining.”

“Really?” Rhys freaked out, going from a trudge to an instant run. “I need to find a source of air somewhere! There must be a building or bubble or something around here!”

“Five minutes of oxygen remaining.”

“I'm a good person! I don't deserve this! I'm still too young to die!” Rhys cried out, forcing himself to keep going towards the core and trying to see through the sand for any buildings or bubbles that may be nearby as he ran. “There's a pocket somewhere, there has to be... C'mon... I refuse to die on the goddamn moon, of all places!”  
  


Finally some hope. A shape of a building could be seen up ahead though the sands. The 'winds' were starting to die down, as was the storm. Rhys saw the building and pushed for a sprint, wanting to reach it and refill his air before it was too late.

“Woaaaaaah!” Rhys was too focused on finding oxygen and didn't realize that this building he saw was actually the top of a larger building built into the large crater that he just tumbled over.

“Stop! Stop!” Rhys kept trying to dig his heels into the loose sand as he continued to be unable to get a grip, quickly sliding down the walls of the crater towards the centre. He hit a snag as his whole foot dipped into the sand, throwing his whole body forwards with the momentum he had built up.

“No! No no no no!”

 _Slam_. He started to tumble down the wall of the crater now, letting out pained grunts as he tried to stop himself from rolling. As he continued to fall, hopeless of stopping, he just really hoped there wasn't any sharp rocks sticking out in his line of travel. That wouldn't end well at all.

Rhys slowly started to come to a stop near the bottom of the crater. He slowly skid out in the sand and eventually stopped. He was now at the foot of the building.

Rhys complained and sat up, looking around him. “Where am I now?” He opened his map to check his location. “I'm... I'm at the core?” He questioned it, but then looked over his shoulder and back at the building that loomed over him.

 

The building was old and worn, beat down from the various storms that passed through this area of the moon. Despite this however, the thick metal panels that made the outside of the building still had their shine and gloss to them. It was very high quality material from what Rhys could tell. Only half of the building was this metal however, the rest seemed to be build directly into the rock face wall of the crater. Rhys had to question how this building could be here and still intact after all the stuff DALH had done. One would think it to be completely destroyed due to the blasting, but yet here it stood, completely intact.

 

“Warning, Oxygen levels depleted!” Rhys gasped hard for one last breath as his bubble of air suddenly dissipated. He quickly scrambled to his feet and looked at the large doorway that was in the middle of the building. He went for it.

Approaching it he found there was a throw switch to the side of the large metal doors to open them. It looked almost like some sort of loading bay doors. Rhys quickly yanked on the old rusty switch that still swung down smoothly and stepped back as a loud rumble happened again, this time however it wasn't a quake. The large metal doors creaked and screeched as they slowly opened, sand and dust falling off of them as they moved. Suddenly a warning siren went off, but Rhys didn't care, he just found himself struggling to keep holding his breath as he watched the doors slowly open. They were taunting him.

Rhys suddenly opened his mouth to gasp, he couldn't hold it anymore, but remembered there was no fresh air to replace what he had just let out. “A-air!” He wheezed and forced himself to climb up over the metal doors that were still moving. He fell down with a clank into a dark area, a long tunnel ahead of him.

Rhys struggled to look up, his vision going blurry. There was nothing ahead of him but more darkness. That's it. That's all that was here and it was as far as he could go. There wasn't any air to be found here...

 

“ _There's nothing there..._ ”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***This chapter has been revised***


	9. A Mistake Has Been Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys is woken up by Dumpy who has made the trip this far with Rhys. Rhys is happy to see him and realized he got into the building just in time. It is actually some sort of sealed off tunnel system. The doors behind him are now closed and the panel to open them is busted from the inside. Rhys goes deeper to find a way out only to find a dead-end and another secret set of doors with the Hyperion logo plastered across them. Unable to operate the panel for this door due to it requiring a bioscan and Rhys not knowing the override pass code, he sighs wondering what to do and hating the idea of being stuck here. He couldn't even contact his friends to find out if they were okay and if they could help him out because there's no signal all the way in where Rhys was. Dumpy suddenly proposes an Idea to Rhys as he hands Rhys the old lens from the ATLAS base the robot had took with it. Realizing what it is Rhys makes a hard choice as he installs the old lens into his Echo Eye. This reactivates the AI which is Handsome Jack. Jack questions why he's back and finds out that Rhys needs his help to open the doors and also fills him in on Elpis. Jack tells Rhys that people like Moxxi are lying to him, but eventually does as he is told

Rhys was woken up by the small chirping sound of electrical beeping as something cold and metal nudged against his face. He groaned and took a deep breath, air filling his lungs once more. He started to feel his body again, the cold ground he was lying on reminded him that he possibly wasn't dead yet. He slowly sat up, and took a moment to open his eyes. A rushing headache coming to him and causing instantly blurred vision. After a moment it stopped and he could see clearly around him now.

He held a hand to his head. “What happened...?”

There was a small chirp followed by the startling sound of a loud corrupted robotic voice. Rhys looked up to see the small read robot floating in front of him, a light shining so he could see. Rhys was more than happy to see this robot, quickly smiling back at it. The robot chirped, clearly happy to see Rhys was okay too.

“D-Dumpy!?” Rhys smiled and reached a hand out to give the small robot a comforting pat to assure the robot that he was doing okay. “Oh my god, you made it all this way? You really are a true friend.”

Dumpy let out a somewhat happy sounding bleep, but it was hard to tell the tone of it due to his corrupted sound module.

“Remind me to fix that when we get home...” Rhys cringed at the corrupted noise and then attempted to stand up. He almost lost his balance for a minute as all the blood suddenly rushed to his head, causing him to stumble.

Rhys noted the fact he could finally breathe again. “Oh wow, that was close.” He said, looking around the area. “Almost died, though you'd think I'd be used to that by now.” He let out a small chuckle, Dumpy however let out a concerned beep.

Rhys turned to look behind him and saw the massive metal doors were now shut behind him. The only thing lighting up the area was large emergency spot lights that only extended around the door's entrance. The sirens were also no longer blaring like they once were. Rhys went to check and see if he could open the doors again, but it appears that the switch on the inside was busted. It hissed electricity at him, not something that should be touched.

“We're not going back out that way it seems...” Rhys sighed and took up his Echo, trying to see if he could contact any of his friends. “I hope they are okay.” He said as he shifted through his contact list, he soon sighed in annoyance and gave up. “I really do hope they are okay...” He repeated, glaring at the message that displayed on his communicator.

No signal.

 

Rhys looked back Dumpy and then shrugged, figuring they had no other option now than to press on. He took up his and and activated a flashlight in his hand, and used it to look around the building. There wasn't much here except a dark tunnel that continued on into the rock facing of the building. Rhys found it odd that despite the space around him, Echos could not be heard as he walked through the tunnel. The walls glittered as Rhys's light passed over them, probably filled with some kind of minerals.

“Well, I guess there's really only one way to go now.” Rhys stated heading through the tunnel and Dumpy following suit behind him. “I wonder what's being kept down here...”

“What even is this place?” Rhys asked aloud, shining his light about. “It couldn't of been here when the attacks were happening so it must be newer...” He concluded. “Maybe it was put here by whoever is making those quakes? Whoever is stupid enough to go drilling for Moonstones.”

Rhys stopped now and examined the darkness. “Where are those moonstones Moxxi was talking about anyway? I'm seeing a whole lot of nothing around here.”

Dumpy chirped in agreement.

Rhys sighed and continued on, heading deeper down the tunnel. Eventually he hit a dead end, with nothing but a big rock wall in front of him. He shined his light over the wall and examined it, looking for anything out of place. He then sighed again and frowned, turning to his robot companion. “Well... Now what are we going to do?” Dumpy looked back at Rhys, and then glanced at the wall. He just let out a confused beep.

“Don't tell me we're trapped in here...” Rhys let out an annoyed groan and turned around, shining his light back down the tunnel they came from. “I suppose I could go see if I can fix that damn switch...” He grumbled. “Who builds a large mysterious door and a random empty tunnel leading to nowhere, anyway?”

Rhys leaned against the nearby rock wall, wanting to just take a small break before he had to deal with that switch back at the entrance. He took out his Echo again and tried to mess with it, looking for a signal.

 

“Oh no!” Rhys exclaimed as he felt the rock he was leaning against shift in, causing him to quickly back away. “Please don't tell me that's ANOTHER quake. The last thing I need right now is a goddamn cave in!” He cringed as the surrounding area started to shake and rocks started to fall loose.

There was the loud sound of scraping and cracking rocks, followed by another screech of grinding metal. This however didn't last as long as the quakes were normally lasting, and quickly stopped. A few more pebbles and dust stirred up before the tunnels fell silent again.

Dumpy chirped to get Rhys's attention, he was still huddled up against the wall fearing he was going to get crushed by stone. Dumpy's beeping encouraged him to look up, and he did, staring back now at where the rock wall to the dead end _used_ to be.

Rhys looked back at the rock he had accidentally shifted, and noticed that it seemed to be fake rock of some sort to blend into the area. Dumpy floated up to the big metal doors that were now in place of the dead end, and nodded towards a pannel in the wall next to them that had revealed itself.

Rhys waked up to it and studied the panel. It was a standard keypad. Suddenly it clicked for him. “It's a secret passage...” He stated, looking over the doors once more before finally noticing the faded branding that was plastered over them.

 

_Hyperion_

 

Rhys stumbled back slightly in mild shock. He was so used to not seeing Hyperion products anywhere now due to them being virtually wiped out... seeing these Hyperion branded doors only brought up more questions as he tried to recall his time working for the company.

“Since when did Hyperion have a secret moon base...?” He asked himself, trying but failing to remember anything being mentioned about this area.

He hesitated for a moment, but remembering that he was basically trapped here, he continued, turning back to the keypad which also contained a bio scanner on it. “Guess we have no option but to see whats behind door number two...” He placed his flesh hand against the scanner. He waited as it scanned and processed his hand.

“DNA does not match. Access denied.”

“Well, shit.” Rhys mumbled and turned to face Dumpy with a frown. “How am I supposed to even know what kind of DNA that's looking for? It could be asking for Vasquez's DNA for all I know...” He took a moment and then activated his Echo Eye, scanning the key pad and seeing if he could figure out which code he would need to open the door manually.

“Warning, Malware detected, please cease tampering or self destruct will be initiated.”

“Woah, okay! Not hacking! I am not hacking!” Rhys instantly shut down his eye, taking a few steps away from the panel. “...What's behind that damn door that needs so much security? Also, what the hell am I supposed to do now? It's not like I'd know a code for a door like this off the top of my head...”

Rhys sighed, giving up again and sliding down against the metal doors, sitting on the cold rock floor of the tunnel. “This is it, game over. This is how I'm gonna die. Either starved to death or blown up by a goddamn quake.”

 

Dumpy made a sound and seemed to have floated up to scan the Hyperion symbol on the door. He then processed something, suddenly floating back over to Rhys.

“Not now dumpy, I'm thinking...” Rhys said, pushing the robot away gently, and continuing to resume his pouting position.

Dumpy continued to pester, chirping until Rhys pushed it away again. Finally the bot floated up and rammed itself into Rhys's head.

“Ow! Mother fu-” Rhys held his head and glared at the robot. “OKAY! FINE! What do you want!?”

Dumpy opened up it's storage compartment and extended its claw, holding out the small object to Rhys.

“...What is that?” Rhys questioned Dumpy, taking the small object from the Robot and turning it in his hand before realizing. “DUMPY!” He exclaimed, startling the robot a little bit. “Where did you get this? _Why_ do you have this!?”

Dumpy let out a scared chirp now, sensing the tone in Rhys's voice and pulling away from him a bit, wondering if he had done something wrong.

Rhys sighed and clenched his fist holding the small object. He let out a growl. “I should have gotten rid of this so many times before-” He started to get ready to toss the damn thing down the tunnel but then stopped himself, loosening his grip on it and evaluating his situation. “I'm stuck here... trapped between a Hyperion door I don't have access to and a broken door down the hall...”

Rhys pulled back and opened up his hand again, staring down now at the small circular lens, gently shifting it in his hand. It appeared to still be in fairly good condition, minus the broken wires. The lens only had a small scratch and nothing more. It was in good enough shape that he could hook it back up if he chose to do so... There was just the issue of what lived within the small piece of hardware that bothered him.

“Am I _really_ considering this?” Rhys looked at Dumpy, as if expecting an answer from him. “After all this time.. After all the shit I had to go through back then... Is this really my only option right now?”

Dumpy just let out a low hum, as if telling Rhys it was his call to make.

Rhys huffed. “I'm really in a sticky situation here, huh?”

 

He reached into his inner jacket pocket, looking for something. Rhys located what he was looking for and took it out, it was a small repair kit. He popped the metal cover on the small case and took a few tools out from it.

“Mirror.” Rhys said, addressing Dumpy.

Dumpy responded and opened a panel on itself with a reflective surface attatched to it. He floated up into position so that Rhys could see himself and what he was doing in the mirror.

“I hope this is worth it.” He sighed, preparing himself for this procedure. “Alright, so like, once I get the doors open, _if_ I can get the doors open, I'll be sure to take it out right away. And like, if I can't open the doors I'll take it out regardless, and probably destroy it. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” He took a deep breath, he was shaking slightly.

“Okay, calm down Rhys... Calm down.” He looked back at Dumpy, giving him an order. “If I start acting weird or trying to kill myself with my arm, shoot me or something, okay?”

Dumpy made a monotone sound, half agreeing with what Rhys told him, not really wanting to shoot him but he would do it if it _had_ to be done.

Rhys positioned himself in the mirror and carefully took up the small pair of tweezers to his left eye. He flinched slightly as he slowly started to pull the orange coloured lens from his eye. Once it was out, he gently pulled it away from his face, lifting it up and accessing the wires attached to it. He wrapped his hand around the bundle of wires and gently gave it a small tug to unhook it from it's socket. His Echo Eye was disconnected now. Rhys gently tucked the ATLAS lens into his pocket and continued.

“Alright, that's the easy part out of the way.” Rhys said, taking the older blue lens now and holding it up in Dump's headlight to have one last look at it. “Now comes the hard part, and its sadly not because I don't have any depth perception.”

He hesitated for a moment, causing Dumpy to check and see if Rhys was still with him. Rhys blinked and sighed, turning the lens to take the broken and frayed cords in his finger tips.

“Will this thing even still work?” He questioned, using the tweezers in his other hand to help guide the cords towards his eye socket. “I guess there's really only one way to find out, isn't there?”

Click.

 

Rhys pushed the lens back into place, blinking a few times and feeling his systems reboot slightly to readjust to the older hardware. It loaded up the standard Echo technology that he used to have up until the major incident. He didn't feel any different, not yet anyway. Instead he just glanced around the small area, expecting to see someone else with him now.

“Huh.” Said Rhys a bit surprised. “I guess this was just a huge waste of ti- AAAGH!” Rhys stumbled backwards, falling against the opposite wall of the tunnel and holding his head.

He suddenly had a huge migraine, worse than the headache he had. The pain was so intense and similar to feeling like someone was bashing his skull against a brick wall. His Echo eye shut down and rebooted multiple times causing the man even more stress as he tried to bare though the pain and get a grip on the situation.

“Mistake! This was mistake!” He shouted through the pain.

Suddenly there was more screaming, but it wasn't coming from Rhys. It sounded more like the tail end of a scream. Dumpy chirped in concern as he watched Rhys on the ground struggling to keep things together. Rhys forced himself to stand up now, shaking. He started walking towards the other end of the tunnel.

Dumpy questioned his actions.

“We need to leave.” Rhys replied, his voice strained. “Now. We need to leave now... I... I...”

 

“-OOOOO!”

Rhys flinched as a large surge of blue energy and light appeared and passed right through him. Rhys stumbled backwards, acting as if something had bumped into him.

Dumpy screeched in worry, floating quickly up to Rhys's side. Rhys was completely frozen up now, just staring back out into the inky blackness of the tunnel, a new presence now lurked behind him.

Everything went quiet.

 

 

“...Wait a minute.” A new but familiar voice spoke up, echoing in Rhys's head. “W-where am I?”

“Oh god...” Rhys mumbled under his breath, turning around to see the source of the voice.

It was a man, immortalized in a blue digital glow. He was standing back onto Rhys. The man shifted, as if feeling himself over and then looked around the area confused.

“Wh-Where am I?” The man asked himself again. “This... No, this can't be Hell, can it?”

“Um...” Rhys spoke out, preparing himself to deal with the man's response.

The man turned around quickly assuming a defensive stance and faced Rhys. His image seemed to glitch out slightly before he shifted again and lowered his defence, looking confused as he stared back at Rhys. “What...”

Rhys stayed in his place, looking the man over again and wondering to himself why he thought this would of ever been a good idea under any given circumstance. “Ah...”

“You!” The man's tone changed to a more aggressive one as he suddenly made a lunge at Rhys, causing the CEO to flinch and close his eyes. The man just passed right through him again. “Augh, not this shit again!” The man complained, and then got an idea, looking over his shoulder back at Rhys. “Oh yeah, that's right. I can just do... This!” The man turned around and started to choke himself with his right arm, smirking at Rhys and waiting for a response.

“That's not going to work this time...” Rhys started to stop being afraid and stepped up to the man. “Just how stupid do you think I am, _Jack_?”

“...What's going on here, Rhys...” The man, now addressed as Jack, scowled at Rhys. “Where am I? Why aren't you dead yet! Why can't I kill you!? Last I checked we were in the ruins of my office, of which YOU CRASHED INTO THE GODDAMN GROUND!”

“And it's still crashed into the ground.” Rhys stated. “It's been over a year since that happened.”

“ _Where. Are. We?_ ” Jack asked again, a clear tone to his voice.

“Elpis.”

 

“ _ELPIS!?_ ” Jack looked both shocked and confused. “What the hell are we doing on...” He suddenly started to laugh slightly. “Ohhhh, I get it... This IS Hell. My Hell is apparently stuck here, with you, in a dark place, on the _goddamn moon_!”

“You're not in Hell, Jack... Though I wish you were.” Rhys replied. “You're actually on Elpis, and you're still an AI trapped in an Echo eye.”

“Huh.” Jack glitched out again. “Y-Y'know come to think of it, I-I-I think I'd p-prefer He-Hell.”

“Me too.” Rhys agreed, a bit confused by how quickly it took Jack to calm down already.

“Yeah. So, uh... Remind me how I got here again, kiddo?” Jack looked at Rhys. “I-I mean, all I can remember is that you were t-tearing out all of your cybernetics.”

“I kept you.” Rhys admitted. “I took you out of my body because you tried to kill me, but I still kept you after that.”

“You... Kept me?” Jack questioned. “So I'm back in your stupid head again?”

Rhys frowned at the insult. “Yeah, you are.”

“...Why?” Jack floated over to Rhys. “Why'd you keep me?”

“Don't get me wrong, I was very, very tempted to kill you.” Rhys threatened. “Yep, was going to squish your sad little AI like a bug.”

“But you didn't...” Jack noted.

“I didn't.” Rhys said. “I didn't because I figured that I could still make use of you, like I am doing right now.”

Jack smirked. “Oh I get it, you're of _those_ people.”

“One of those people?” Rhys questioned. “What do you mean by that?”

“The kind of person who has no one that matters to them. You just use people for your own personal gain and then toss them aside when you no longer require them.”

“To be fair, you tried to kill me!” Rhys exclaimed in defence. “So yes, excuse me if I feel like treating you that way.”

“Aw, c'mon. Don't hold attempted murder against me! You would of done the same if I had crashed your ship into the face of Pandora.” Jack replied.

“Who's holding what against who now?” Rhys stated. “Ugh, never mind. Jack, listen.”

“I need your help.” Rhys told him.

“Of course you do.” Jack frowned. “Although, y-you didn't seem to need any he-help when you single handedly-”

“Okay! Okay, I get it! You're still mad!” Rhys snapped. “But please, I don't have time to argue about that right now. You're an AI, and you can't do anything else but be disconnected again, so it looks like you have no choice but to help me, alright?”

“I wouldn't help you if my life depended on it.” Jack sneered, folding his arms and glaring at Rhys.

“Well, your life kinda does depend on it. If you don't help me, you're completely useless and I no longer have a need for you.” Rhys started to reach for his eye. “I guess I'll just go ahead and unplug you then and-”

“No! No, wait! Don't do it!” Jack sounded worried and made a motion for Rhys to stop his actions. “I changed my mind! I'll help, what do you want?”

Rhys smirked at him. Jack was scared, this was the first time he'd seen the world since Rhys disconnected him the first time. He finally had power and control over Jack for once, and this time, things would be different.

“Well first of all, the moon is at risk of blowing up.” Rhys decided to fill Jack in a bit on what was currently going on.

“What?” Jack looked at him. “Is DALH attacking again or something? I thought I killed off all those ass holes long ago.”

“You what?” Rhys looked at Jack with surprise. He was under the impression that Jack had only killed the ones stopping him from entering the Vault. “B-but Moxxi said-”

“Oh great, so you've been talking to ol' balloon tits too?” Jack chuckled. “Jesus Rhys, you really know how to get around, huh? What else have you been doing with out me? I'm starting to feel a bit left out here.”

Rhys frowned. “What I've been up to is really none of your business, what matters now is that I'm here to save Elpis and Pandora, and I'm currently unable to do that, because I'm stuck in this tunnel. I'm stuck, because there's a Hyperion door thing right over there, that I don't know the access code to.”

Jack sighed. “Oh you just assume I know everything about Hyperion because I was the CEO, huh? Man this thing is probably-” Jack suddenly stopped, looking the door, and then the rest of the area over. He turned back to Rhys. “Y-Y'know, I think I'd pre-prefer to be disconnected now.”

 

Rhys squinted at Jack. “You know something, don't you?” Rhys folded his arms and continued with a look of disapproval. “You know exactly how to open that door, you know what's hiding behind it.”

“Look, kid, I-If you're trying to stop the moon from b-b-blowing up, why the hell are you here?” Jack questioned, continuing to glitch out.

“This is where Moxxi said the quakes might be originating from.” Rhys replied. “We're at the core where DALH was basting the moon using the Eye of Helios.”

“Oh great, you know that story now too?” Jack groaned.

“Yeah, apparently you were a hero, hard to believe that ever happened...” Rhys rolled his eyes.

“Yeah I...” Jack fixed his posture and addressed Rhys with a question. “Wait, they didn't tell you anything else other than the basics?”

“By basics you mean about how you saved the moon by stopping DALH, then no.” Rhys replied. “Is there more to the story that I should know?”

“Yeah... Oh yeah...” Jack smirked. “So you're trusting Moxxi's word, eh? She lead you here?”

“Yeah, me and the rest of the group.” Rhys said. “Though we got separated from a sandstorm, and then a quake hit on top of that.”

“Eh, they're probably dead or something.” Jack shrugged that information off.

“W-what!?” Rhys exclaimed, now very worried about his friends.

“Yeah, what I'd be more w-worried about is the fact that Moxxi i-is the one who lead you here.” Jack continued.

“What's wrong with Moxxi?” Rhys questioned. “What do you have against her?”

“Other than the fact she's a downright dirty, lying, traitorous bitch? Nothing.” Jack replied. “It's just that I'm saying, you made a mistake in trusting her.”

“Why is that?”

“You don't know what she did to me, do you Rhysie?” Jack was being serious now.

“N-no?” Rhys replied.

 

“Her and her friends, who I thought were also my friends but I guess not, they tried to KILL me.” Jack growled.

“So?” Rhys didn't find anything off with that statement. “I'd do the same if I knew you back then, you're kinda an asshole-”

“No, no I meant before I did everything else.” Jack replied. “Listen, you probably already know that back then, during the whole incident with Elpis's Vault, I was only half as great as I am now. Back then I was just a lackey like you were working for Hyperion.”

“You were an engineer.” Rhys stated.

“Yeah, and I was, and still am, a damn good one.” Jack said. “Y'see Rhys, belive it or not I actually was trying to _help_ people. My plan was to kill the l-leader of the DALH a-attacks and take back control of Helios, thus saving thousands of people from meeting an untimely demise. But y'know what Moxxi and her little friends Lilith and Roland did? They tried to fucking kill me, right after I had saved the moon.”

“But why?” Rhys had to question, because Jack was onto something. Why would you try and kill someone who had just saved everyone?

“Because they didn't want me to get to the goddamn Vault!” Jack clenched his fist. “He tried to kill me and prevent me from getting to something I wasn't even that fixated on... not until they tried to kill me over it, that was.”

“I can kinda understand why they didn't want you to get to the Vault.” Rhys responded. “They probably didn't want you releasing another Vault monster or something...”

“I wasn't going to do that until after.” Jack corrected him. “I had no intentions of using that Vault for bad things, Rhys.”

“Really? Someone like you had good intentions for once?” Rhys wasn't buying this sob story fully.

“I'm serious!” Jack looked back at Rhys. “I didn't want to hurt anyone I didn't have to... but after Moxxi and her cronies ruined my fucking life... weeeeellllll.” Jack tilted his head. “I guess you can say my intentions shifted.”

“How exactly did they ruin your life? You went on to own goddamn Hyperion.” Rhys questioned.

“Oh, well now let's just see all the horrible things they did to me.” Jack sat in mid air and started to count on his fingers. “Alright so first of all they made plans way ahead in advance just on the principal that they didn't fucking trust me. Then, they played me and worked with me just to turn around and stab me in the goddamn back. They betrayed me, tried to kill me. They destroyed my goddamn eye, and then, when I finally got the Vault and got my hands on that... That power... next thing I knew that fucking siren came in and-” Jack trailed off, his face and tone going from sarcastic to grim.

Rhys coughed and shifted awkwardly. “Moxxi didn't tell me any of that...”

“No, of course she didn't! Wouldn't of wanted to ruin her first impressions with you, now would she?” Jack frowned.

“What point are you making with all of this, Jack?” Rhys was starting to grow a bit impatient.

“What I'm getting at is that you shouldn't be so quick to trust people. Especially someone like Moxxi. What if this was a trap?” Jack posed the question.

Rhys did take a moment to think on it. “No... She wouldn't be leading me astray like that, she just met me. Also if the moon explodes she'll die too, so if I'm one of the only people who could possibly stop it, then I highly doubt she'd waste time by leading me astray like that.”

Jack sighed. “Fine, fine. Believe whoever the hell you want, but listen to me when I say she _will_ stab you in the back at a moments notice.”

“I'll keep it in mind.” Rhys replied, fully intending to apply Jack's own advice to him instead of everyone else. He walked up to the number pad on the panel next to the door. “Now, what are you hiding behind this door.”

 

“...Y-yknow where we are R-Rhys?” Jack asked, walking over to him and leaning against the wall. “We're in a Vault.”

“...The same Vault you were looking for back then?” Rhys wondered.

“What's left of it.” Jack replied. “Re-purposed it a long time ago when I was CEO.”

“So, what's behind the door?” Rhys questioned.

“Nothing important. Why do you want to know?” Jack asked.

“I don't really want to know, but I do want a way out of here.” Rhys explained. “The front door is broken.”

“Ugh, fine.” Jack sighed and looked at the panel. “That's a DNA scanner and only a select number of people's DNA was programmed into it, so you're going to need the security code instead.”

Rhys nodded. “Alright, so what is it?”

“Try eight, z-zero, zero, eight, five.” Jack told him.

“Got it.” Rhys started putting the code in. “Eight, zero, zer- Hey wait a minute!” He stopped and looked at the number on the key pad's display. Jack was behind him and already starting to crack up.

“Ha! O-Oh my G-God you fell for it!” Jack laughed. “You just spelled boobs.”

“Jack, grow up!” Rhys snapped and started to erase the code. “I think you're right, maybe I should disconnect you.”

“Okay, o-okay!” Jack quickly dropped his fun. “T-two, six, f-four, three, five.”

“ _Thank you_.” Rhys said sarcastically and put the code in.

 

The place suddenly started to shake again as the scanner made a satisfying beep. The large metal Hyperion doors scraped and slid open. Rhys tried to keep his balance as he waited for the doors to stop and the tunnel to calm down once more. Once everything stopped, Rhys looked through the doorway.

 

“ _Whoa...”_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***this chapter has been revised.***


	10. The Vault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The other side of the door is the old Vault that Jack tried to use back shortly after the events of the DALH attacks. Jack explains to Rhys how Hyperion converted it for later use. Rhys makes contact with a rather large Moonstone in the Moonstone filled cave and has an odd reaction as he's hit with a blast of energy (knocking Jack loose in the process). He discovered that whatever happened with touching that moonstone, everyone he touches with his flesh hand has the power and energy drained from it for no reason, and it's something Rhys has never had happen to him before. Vaughn finally gets a hold of Rhys and asks what happened, agreeing to come help him out of the Vault and that he would arrive shortly. Jack blinks back in and noted that Rhys was having an odd reaction to the Moonstones and stated that it doesn't happen when any normal person picks up the rocks. Rhys then proceeds to start taking Jack out now that he doesn't need him anymore, and Jack suddenly begs him to stop, suggesting he could still be of use and Rhys should keep him fro the time being. Vaughn shows up and saves Rhys, and takes him back to the bar with the others.

“Whoa...” Rhys gasped as he watched the large doors open and natural light shining from the other side. The area was a large open cave within the tunnel. The light bounced around and shimmered back at Rhys, decorating the many stalagmites and stalactites that littered the area's floor and ceiling. The light was being emitted by a bunch of cyan coloured glowing rocks, that were integrated with the natural rock.

“Beautiful, ain't it?” Jack casually floated past Rhys, looking around the cave. “T-these are Moonstones.” He pointed to the glowing rocks. “It's kinda rare to find so many d-deposited into one space like this.”

“Oh, so Moxxi was right.” Rhys said following Jack further into the open area. He overlooked the Moonstones as well, they were everywhere here.

“She t-told you about my Moonstone deposit, too!?” Jack scowled. “What else do you know, that I d-don't know you know!”

“Not enough to worry about.” Rhys pushed past him, a very large chunk of Moonstone catching his eye as it protruded from the adjacent cave wall. It was kinda like a stalagmite made completely out of Moonstone. “What's the point of all these rocks anyway? Why are they so important?”

“T-They work kinda similar to how Eridium works back on Pandora.” Jack explained. “E-Except they only produce a-about half the power that Eridium does.”

“What were you planning to do with them?” Rhys asked.

“Was planning on mining them up eventually.” Jack replied. “I could of figured out a way to exploit them and use them in some choice weaponry, a-as w-we-well as-” Jack suddenly blinked out, only for a quick moment, before reappearing again. “-fine price.”

Rhys lost part of the conversation.

“...Interesting.” Rhys replied and extended his hand towards the large Moonstone in front of him, curios and wanting to touch it.

“H-Hey hang on a minute kid-!” Jack made a motion to try and stop Rhys, not that he could physically stop him anyway, but it was already too late.

 

The minute Rhys's hand made contact with the cool surface of the Moonstone there was an extremely bright flash of light. When it happened, Rhys was violently propelled backwards by an unknown force. The force was so great that it caused him to hit the far opposite wall of the cave, hitting his head in the process.

It was only a second or two this all took place in, and then it was over. Rhys groaned and held the back of his head, squinting as he looked back at the large Moonstone. He watched in confusion as the light slowly faded from the stone and it turned completely grey. It was almost as if the power from the Moonstone was suddenly drained from it.

Rhys, who was getting of taking head trauma, stood up and turned towards Jack.  
“What just happened? What did I just do?” Rhys questioned.

There was no response.

“Jack?” Rhys looked around the area, trying to figure out where the AI went. He was no where to be found. Rhys must of hit his head so hard that he knocked the programming loose a little bit. Great, the last thing he needed was the man popping back in at random and scaring him.

 

Dumpy was still sticking around, and floated up to Rhys after all of that, checking to make sure that he was okay.

“I-I'm fine...” Rhys replied, continuing to rub the back of his head, he took a pretty hard throw. “I wish I knew what happened...” He looked around at the other still glowing Moonstones in the area and then back at the larger one that was now cold and dull in comparison. “It's funny... It's almost as if it's power's been drained or something..” Rhys stated.

He turned to a nearby pile of small and loose Moonstones, probably ones that feel over time due to the quakes. “Wonder what the chances of something weird like that happening again are...” Rhys bent down to pick up one of the rocks, expecting the worse, but instead nothing happening.

“Odd.” Rhys said turning the rock over in his robotic hand. “This one didn't try to kill me.” He dropped that rock and picked up a different one. Still nothing. “I wonder what it was about that one particular... rock....”

Rhys had transferred the Moonstone from his right robotic hand to his left normal hand. He trailed off as he watched the light drain and fade away from the rock. It went cold and dull just like the large one. He picked up another rock, keeping it in his robot hand. It remained the same, but when he transferred it to his flesh hand...

“What the...” Rhys dropped the dark rocks and took a step back, looking at Dumpy. “Something's not right here.” He continued to walk around the cave and pick up various stones. Each one of them drained the same way each time. “Am... Am I doing this?” He questioned.

Rhys raised up his left hand and stared at it, examining it for anything out of place or odd. Nothing seemed off to him, so now the questions were about if contact with human flesh just ruins the stones, or if something actually was wrong with him.

 

There was a sudden beeping sound, similar to a ring tone of some sort. Rhys flinched as the sound caught him off guard, but he relaxed as he instantly recognized what it was. He lifted his right hand and brought up the ECHO interface, answering the incoming call.

“Oh thank God...” It was Vaughn.

“Rhys! Where are you!?” Vaughn's voice came in over the device.

Rhys could faintly hear Sasha and Fiona talking in the background as well.

“I told you he wasn't dead.” “Darn, fine here's your twenty.”

“I-I'm... I think I found the old vault Moxxi was talking about.” Rhys replied. “I ended up finding a bunch of... Moonstones... Are you guys all okay?”

“Yeah, we're fine. We were worried about you, really.” Vaughn replied. “Not gonna lie, most of us thought you died. Besides Sasha anyway.” He paused for a moment. “So if you're at the Vault that means you're near the core. Did you figure out what's causing the quakes?”

“No...” Rhys replied. “It's empty, there's no one here, except me of course.”

“Strange...” Vaughn continued. “You should come back to Concordia, that's where we went after regrouping and trying to avoid the storm... That and we thought you died.”  
“Yeah, I got that.” Rhys replied bluntly. “Thanks guys. Real great friends.”

“But you're not dead, so yay?” Vaughn chuckled. “Anyway, if there's no one drilling at the core then we need to revise our plan and work on a different approach to this impending doom.”

“Fair enough.” Rhys stated, and then remembered how he got here in the first place. “I'll head back as soon as I find a way out of here...”

“...You're trapped in the core, aren't you?” Vaughn asked, though he already knew the answer.

“...No...No...I'm sure there's an exit just- Yeah. Yes I am trapped in the core.” Rhys sighed in defeat.

“Where even are you, exactly?” Vaughn continued to get details. “If we could of found any sign of the core we would of headed there instead.”

“There's like a bunker down in a crater somewhere near where we got split up. The core is in the bunker, underground.” Rhys explained. “The bunker was built sometime after the DALH attacks, was made by Hyperion. Was hiding a large deposit of moonstones under here.”

“Huh, interesting.” Vaughn responded. “Do you need help?”

“Oh nah, I'll be fine. I'll find a way out, just grab a spoon, dig out. Don't worry about it, I'll make a day of it.” Rhys stated sarcastically. “The doors like, one way only because the switch is busted, so yeah I'll play a treasure hunt looking for the other exit.”

“Okay, geeze, no need to be a dick about it.” Vaughn said. “Tracking your location as we speak, will be there in a little bit to come let you out.”

“Alright, thank you.” Rhys ended the call.

 

Dumpy looked at Rhys curiously as he put his hand back down after ending the conversation with Vaughn.

“Well, all we can do now is wait.” Rhys said to the tiny robot. He went around picked up a few more Moonstones, still interested in how they drained when he picked them up. He still wished he could figure out what was causing this odd reaction.

“God I hate when that happens!” Rhys flinched and almost dropped the stone he was holding as Jack's voice started to echo throughout his mind again. “P-pro tip K-kiddo. Try not to go s-smashing your head against solid goddamn r-rock walls!”

“It wasn't my fault!” Rhys replied and turned around to face with the AI hologram once more. “Something weird happened and a force threw me against the wall when I touched that large Moonstone over there.” He pointed back towards the large one he first interacted with, which now sat completely cold and looking like any normal rock.

“Well, I did try to stop you, but y'know not m-much I c-can do when I'm just a fuckin' projection.” Jack stated.

“What happened to me?” Rhys questioned.

“Dunno, all I saw was a flash of light and you smashing your head like a frickin' idiot.” Jack replied. “All I can suggest is the obvious, you had some sort of weird reaction to the Moonstone.”

“Yeah they are being weird for sure. They keep draining whenever I make contact with them.” Rhys picked up a stone in his left hand, and held it up to let Jack watch it drain of its color.

“...Weird.” Jack frowned and looked at Rhys. He was looking at him as if he knew more than he was letting on, but also as if he was questioning everything he knew about Rhys. “You ever have anything like this happen before?” He asked.

“No?” Rhys replied, unable to recall anytime something like this happened. “I think I would of noticed by now if randomly touching things caused them to explode or loose their powers.”

“O-oh, then it's probably n-nothing to worry about.” Jack shrugged.

“Do Moonstones usually explode on contact?” Rhys asked.

Jack laughed. “N-no, of course not. I-If they did I wou-wouldn't be able to sell them without being prepared for a l-lawsuit.”

“So its just me then?”

“Its just you.”

Rhys sighed. “Of course it is.”

 

Dumpy chirped and looked at Rhys, he seemed to be asking something. Rhys looked at him and watched as Dumpy opened it's panel again and displayed the reflective mirror-like surface to him.

“Oh, that's right. I don't need him anymore.” Rhys said and started to rummage in his pocket for his ATLAS Echo Lens.

“Whoa, whoa! Now hang on just a minute! W-w-what do you think you're doing?” Jack questioned, getting up in Rhys face to distance him from the small robot as a distraction.

“I'm going to remove you again.” Rhys said. “I don't need you anymore, I got through what you were useful for.” He started to take out and open his repair kit.

“W-Who's to s-say you don't n-need me anymore!?” Jack questioned, he sounded a bit worried in his tone. “I-I could still be useful to you, Rhysie!”

“You were nothing but a whole lot of trouble the last time I had you hooked up to me.” Rhys scowled at him. “Why would you be useful to me now? All I needed was that door opened.”

“B-Because!” Jack paused and thought on things for a moment. “You uh... Uhhh... _Shit_!”

“That's what I thought.” Rhys made a motion towards his eye.

“Wait! J-Just wait, d-dammit!” Jack glitched very heavily. “I _can_ help you! I-I know Elpis like the b-back of my hand! I can help you survive out there, and m-maybe figure out t-this little mystery you're h-hooked on.”

Rhys backed off a little bit, curious by Jack's claims. “Is that so?”

“Y-yeah! There's no one here in the c-core causing the q-quakes, obviously they are coming from somewhere else. I can help you find out where t-that is.” Jack explained.

“I dunno...”

“Please! D-Don't send me back _there!_ ” Jack took Rhys by the shoulders. “C'mon now, what h-harm can I do? Really? Hyperion is fucking dead, you killed it. A-as you said I'm useless now, there's nothing for me to gain, so w-why not just keep me around?”

“Um... Because you're useless to me now and there's no reason to keep you?” Rhys questioned.

“Oh c'mon. Have a heart, as icy cold as that may be.” Jack frowned. “I mean, Jesus, even I'm not this c-cruel, Rhys!”

“Don't you dare guilt-”

 

“Rhys!” There was slight vibrations that coursed through the area and the echoing sound of large steel panels scraping against solid rock. Coming from down at the end of the tunnel was Vaughn's voice. “Rhys! Are you in here!?”

“Not. One. Word.” Rhys looked at Jack, giving him a stern warning, then he turned towards the direction of Vaughn's voice. “Y-Yeah! I'm here! I'm down the tunnel way!” He called out to Vaughn.

There was sound of approaching footsteps and then finally Vaughn emerged from the darkness, putting his flashlight out once he saw the natural light of the stones filling the area. “Whoa...” He said looking around at the pretty sight.

“I know right?” Rhys smiled and walked up to Vaughn to greet him. “Its pretty cool.”

“Yeah it is... now I know why some people would want to drill for these.” Vaughn said.

“Except, no one's drilling for them here. Look around, this place hasn't been disturbed in ages.” Rhys explained. “Those doors back there were a set of old Hyperion ones that blocked this area off, just to help give an estimate on how old this stuff is. You'd think we would of found out about this little side project while we were working for Hyperion.”

“What did Hyperion want with these?” Vaughn questioned.

“Well, Moonstones are like Eridium except not as powerful.” Rhys quoted Jack's explanation. “My guess is that they probably wanted to harvest all the Moonstones and make weapons from them to sell.”

“Interesting...” Vaughn looked back at Rhys. “Where did you get all this information?”

“I uh... Scanned it?” Rhys said, lying about getting the info from Jack for obvious reasons. “The information was on that keypad back there by the entrance.”

“I see...” Vaughn went to go pick up one of the shiny stones that sat on the ground nearby.

“No- Wait!” Rhys went to go stop Vaughn, but instead stopped himself when he realized that unlike Rhys, Vaughn had no problem picking up and interacting with the Moonstones.

“What? What's wrong?” Vaughn looked back at Rhys confused, holding the glowing rock in his hands.

“I... I don't understand...” Rhys spoke and took the stone from Vaughn, making sure to hold it in the cybernetic hand. “They... do weird stuff when I touch them.”

“But, you're holding it right now?” Vaughn was even more confused.

“I mean when I _touch_ them. Like, y'know... Watch.” Rhys explained and proceeded to transfer the rock between his hands, making sure Vaughn could see as the stone made contact with his skin and the colour melted away.

“What the hell...?” Vaughn took the now depleted rock from Rhys, turning it and looking it over, trying to figure out what Rhys did to it. “How did you do that?”

“I don't know.” Rhys replied with honesty. “I just touched that larger one over there, it shot me back, and now every stone I touch does that weird thing. It's only when I touch it with my left hand though, almost as if I'm sucking the powers from them or something.”

“Well... do you feel any different?” Vaughn asked Rhys the obvious question.

“Aside from feeling a bit sore from being thrown against the wall, no.”

“This is totally bizarre.” Vaughn said and went to grab another stone, handing it over to Rhys. “Do it again.”

Rhys drained it once more.

 

“Well now, this is certainly interesting.” Jack spoke as he walked past Rhys, pacing circles around the pair.

“What's interesting...?” Rhys questioned.

“Uh.” Vaughn looked back at Rhys, confused once more because he didn't say anything.

“You, draining the energy from Moonstones...” Jack explained. “Oh but I really shouldn't be saying much right now, since you're so reluctant to be honest with your so called friends and tell them what you've done.”

Jack nodded towards Vaughn and Rhys looked at his friend to see him looking back at Rhys with concern. Rhys just realized the situation that he had gotten himself into by letting Jack back into his head. He defiantly couldn't tell Vaughn about this, or anyone for that matter. Only a mad man, or a complete fucking idiot, would of ever thought that putting the Handsome AI back into his head would ever be a good idea. His friends weren't even aware that Rhys had even bothered to hang onto the lens after all this time, so how the hell was he going to explain this? Rhys wondered if he slipped up and they found out about it, would they force him down and rip his eye out trying to destroy the lens by force or something? It was an experience he did NOT wish to deal with, not while trying to address the moon exploding anyway.

“Oh...Sorry. Thought you said something.” Rhys quickly corrected his mistake of addressing Jack in front of Vaughn.

Vaughn continued to question Rhys. “Are you sure you're feeling okay? Maybe these Moonstones are effecting you after all...”

“Yeah, maybe.” Rhys shrugged.

“C'mon, let's get you back to the town... Maybe Moxxi can make some sort of sense out of all of this.” Vaughn suggested.

“Alright, sounds like a good idea.” Rhys agreed and started to follow Vaughn back through the tunnel. “It certainly couldn't hurt to get this checked out.”

“We're coming back out, LB. Open the doors.” Vaughn talked into a communicator on his arm.

“On it.” LB responded back over the communicator and as they walked towards the main entrance the shaking happened again as the robot opened the doors, standing there to greet them as they approached the exit. “My estimations show that you have about fifteen seconds to make it through these 'potentially deadly if you get stuck in them' doors before they close automatically.”

The pair heard him and started into a sprint, heading through the doors.

The doors slammed shut behind them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This Chapter Has Been Revised.**


	11. Here We Go Again...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys arrives back at the bar and reports that there was nothing at the core so now they must think of another game plan. Moxxi comes up with another idea for getting the exact location of where the quakes are occurring and gives Vaughn a tracking device that works when quakes hit. Rhys continues to question why he was convinced by Jack to keep him around and expresses that he can't talk to Jack much for fear the others will catch on quickly due to the past experience. Jack also has an idea about the reaction Rhys is having to moonstones, but wont elaborate on it. Moxxi is also curious about it and gets Rhys to demostrate it for her. Moxxi also sets Rhys straight about the beef between her and Jack. Rhys chooses to keep trusting everyone but Jack. Speaking of Jack, Rhys also picks up on the fact Jack's programming is very broken from the last time they met. Another quake hits and Vaughn starts using the machine to track it. The group sets out again to try and find the real location for the quakes this time around.

Vaughn, LB, and Rhys walked back into Moxxi's bar on Concordia. The Girls were there to greet them. Moxxi was leaning on the counter, and waved to catch Rhys's attention as he walked in. She wanted to talk to him.

“What did ya find, sugar?”

“I found some of the old remains of the Vault, the same one you told me Jack was looking for.” Rhys explained. “It had a cave that was full of Moonstones that Hyperion was apparently keeping under wraps for use on some sort of business operation that never had a chance to see the light of day. The place was locked down though, I struggled to hack into the doors that sealed it off, so there was no one there drilling or anything.”

“That's strange.” Moxxi frowned. “I thought for sure that was going to lead to the cause of the quakes. I mean, it only seemed like a logical estimation.”

“It was a good guess.” Rhys told her. “But it looks like we are going to need to consider other options now instead.”

“Alright. Do any ideas come to mind?” Moxxi now addressed the full group as a whole.

 

“We can look further into the fact it's volcanic activity.” Sasha suggested. “Even if it's natural or not, knowing more about it, we may be able to do something.”

“I think first we should focus on locating the exact location these quakes are originating from.” Vaughn spoke up. “All earthquakes start from a major point and then span out in circular waves, travelling through the surface of the planet. Fiona's map only displays where people have experienced the waves from the quakes, thought we can still use that information to help pinpoint the main location.”

Moxxi hummed. “I may just have something here that could help you with something like that. Wait just a minute.”

She went to the left behind her bar, heading into some sort of back room. There was the sound of somethings being shifted and after a few minutes she returned to the group.

Moxxi handed Vaughn a small silver coloured hand-held device with a tiny screen on it. “That thing there can scan the ground around you and tell you whats in it, and then what's nearby. With a few modifications I just made to it, it should be able to track the vibrations and waves, and also tell you the magnitude of the quakes, thus helping you narrow down it's origin point.” She paused. “However the only downside to using it, is that you'll need to experience a few more quakes first to calibrate it.”

“It's better than just standing around doing nothing. This should work out really well actually...” Vaughn looked the device over quickly, getting a feel for how it works and messing with a few of its dials and buttons. “Thanks for this, but-” Vaughn looked back at Moxxi now, doing a quick double take on her appearance. “I didn't think someone like you would be-”

“Don't look like the tinkering type much, do I?” Moxxi chuckled softly. “You'd be surprised by all the little things you don't know about a person like me.”

Vaughn blushed slightly. “Ah... That's... That's very interesting...”

Rhys elbowed him and teased in a hushed tone. “Who's crushing now?”

“Shut up, Rhys.” Vaughn pushed him away slightly with his forearm, grumbling and heading down to one of the booths to sit down and fiddle with the device some more.

“Wait, so we gotta wait for this place to be hit again?” Fiona questioned. “That doesn't seem very productive to me.”

“It's sadly all we have to go by.” Moxxi explained. “You can't figure out how to stop the quakes if you don't know what's causing them, and this is the first step in figuring that out.”

“I guess you have a point.” Fiona replied.

“'sides-” Moxxi continued. “That little device of mine won't need too big of a quake to start workin'. As soon as something starts, even a tremor, it will activate, and then all you guys have to do is follow it to where it's pointing to. And, with how long these quakes have been lasting lately, I'd say at the most you'll find what you're looking for after 2 quakes, tops.”

 

“Hey Mox...” Rhys addressed the woman when she was done her conversation, but then began to stumble a bit. “I-I mean, can I call you Mox? You cool with that? You like nicknames? Y-yes? No? It's fine if you don't I mean I know we haven't known each other very long but-”

“ _Smoooooth_.” Jack had himself perched at the bar counter, smirking at Rhys as he watched him trip over his own words trying to engage with Moxxi.

Rhys glared at him.

Moxxi laughed, leaning over the counter and resting on her elbows as she looked back at Rhys. “Mox is alright, honey. Anything I can do for you?”

“Y-yeah. Yes actually I was... I was wondering if I could talk to you for a second?” Rhys slowly started to gain his composure back. “I have a few questions I was hoping you had the answers to...”

“Well now, if I have the answer or not depends on the questions you're looking to ask, doesn't it?” Moxxi replied. “What's on your mind?”

“Who's on my mind...” Rhys corrected. “Since I found the vault and learned a few more interesting things... I want to know a little bit more about what happened with Jack.”

“I'm right here y'know.” Jack shifted in the stool. “If you have any questions you can just ask me, kiddo.”

Rhys ignored him, and instead looked to Moxxi for his answers.

“Well, there ain't that much more that happened, really...” Moxxi started in, pulling up her own stool to get a bit more comfortable behind the bar.

“I'll ask a few questions then.” Rhys replied, sitting down on his side of the bar now too, resting hands on the counter top. “First of all, did you know him very well?”

Moxxi seemed a bit surprised by the question. She sheepishly looked around the bar to make sure no one was listening in before she leaned in closer to Rhys and kept her voice low.

“If you really want to know, yes I did. I ended up learning a few things about him on a... Very personal level...” She took a moment before continuing. “Keep this just between you and me, but I dated the man at one point, Rhys. Way back when.”

“You did!?” Rhys exclaimed, shocked by this information.

Jack laughed. “Haha, fuck _yeah_ she did!” He smirked.

“Hey! Keep it down. It's not like it's something to be proud of or anything.” Moxxi hissed. “But from that experience I did end up getting a pretty good idea about what kind of person he was.”

“So when did you realize he was a total asshole?” Rhys questioned, noticing as Jack shot him a dirty look from out of the corner of his eye.

“I mean, he was always an asshole, but I suppose he got really bad during those DALH attacks and dealings with the Vault here on Elpis.” Moxxi stated. “You really are interested in what happened with him and the Vault, aren't you?”

“Yeah, I am.” Rhys confirmed. “I just like to know what happened back then. Get some more information I never knew before.”

“Well, here's some of the details I left out in my brief history lesson.” Moxxi started. “First of all, even though he did want to help people, and tried to, Jack just... Didn't really know how to go about doing that in the best ways possible. He ended up killing just as many people as he ended up helping and savin'. And in trying to reach his goal of stopping DALH and taking the Vault for himself, a lot of the people he killed were naturally uncalled for.” She continued on with an example. “Like after getting help from a very kind group of scientists on Hyperion in stopping DALH's assault, he tossed them all out of the airlock when he was done with them, simply because he didn't need them anymore.”

“He did that, huh?” Rhys turned his head to look at Jack, disapprovingly.

“Hey! F-For the record, one of them ratted me out to my boss about what was going on Helios. What was I_I-I supposed to do, I couldn't fig-figure out which one done it, so was I just supposed to risk having a traitor on the station?” Jack tried to defend his actions. Rhys just rolled his eyes at him and turned back to Moxxi.

“Yeah, he did do that, and whole slew of other nasty stuff like that as well.” Moxxi continued on. “Naturally once we dealt with the threat of DALH using the hijacked laser to drill a hole into the moon, we had to move onto dealing with the bigger threat at hand... The fact that a complete madman like Jack was after the Vault. Letting someone like him get his hands on all of that power, was just a recipe for disaster waiting to happen.”

“...What was the problem with Jack getting whatever was in the Vault, anyway? Y'know, aside from the fact he's a madman?” Rhys did have to question this.

“How much do you know about Vaults, Rhys?” Moxxi asked him. “You do know that most if not all Vaults contain powerful objects or beasts that can be used to easily wipe out a planet, right?”

“Yeah... I was in a Vault actually. The Vault of the Traveller. That was the only one I've been in though, not sure how many a Vault hunter like Fiona has been in though.” Rhys replied. “But yeah, it wasn't easy getting into it, and that monster that guarded it was huge, deadly and scary...” He smiled, thinking back to the spoils of that adventure. “There was some very, very nice loot inside of it, though.”

“Right. So you know exactly what types of things Vaults can contain.” Moxxi shifted. “Now, you go and take a trigger happy killer like Jack, and you understand why we couldn't let him have the contents of the Vault here on Elpis.” Moxxi took a moment, and then started in again. “I mean, for reference, he ended up getting to the Vault of the Warrior back on Pandora, and I'm sure you've been told the story of what happened then.”

“Yeah... Yeah you're right, Jack getting the vault on Elpis probably would ended Pandora before he tried again with the warrior.” Rhys said. “I get it. Jack just, couldn't be trusted. He wasn't a very trustworthy person, and he was a very dangerous person.”

“Yeah, he was.” Moxxi agreed. “So, what became of him when he did manage to get into the Vault? You're probably curious right?” Moxxi continued the story. “So, he did actually manage to find the so called “weapon” that was inside the Vault, but luckily Lilith came in at just the right time and stopped him form ever benefiting from it.”  
“Yeah. The bitch fucking punched me in the face over it.” Jack clenched his fists, he sure as hell would never forget what happened in the Vault here on Elpis.

“And well, that was pretty much that. You know the rest of the story from here.” Moxxi said. “He went on to take over Hyperion and started in on the Warrior and other side projects to “reform” the planet.”

“B-Bunch of fucking traitors and liars... good for no-nothing... useless waste of space... goddamn bandits...” Jack continued to mumble and complain, he was working on some anger issues at the moment.

 

“Well, thanks for that.” Rhys stood up straight again. “I think I have all the information I needed.”

“What prompted the question, anyway?” Moxxi asked.

“I was just... curious.” Rhys replied. “I've had a bad experience with Jack myself in the past.”

“Oh, so you knew him too, huh?” Moxxi questioned.

“Yeaaah... Kinda.” Rhys smiled. “I guess you could say I knew him on a personal level as well, except y'know, in a way you would never except me to know him in.”

“...So how did you know him?” Moxxi titled his head in curiosity.

Rhys smirked back at her. “How about this... Once I stop the moon from blowing up, I will come back and tell you my story.”

Moxxi chuckled, having received a taste of her own medicine. “Alright, that's fair. Good luck playing hero then, tiger. I look forward to getting to know you better in a little more detail...” Moxxi touched off Rhys's hand and winked as she said that, before pulling away and heading over to the far side of the bar to deal with a few new customers who had just showed up.

“...Hah.” Rhys smiled and blushed slightly as the tingling feeling in his hand slowly faded and he watched her walk away from him.

“S-She's too old for you.” Jack was leaning on Rhys's shoulder now. “Don't worry though, you're n-n-not the first, nor the last to fall for her.”

“...Get off.” Rhys made a shrugging motion to push Jack off of him, even though he wasn't really there, Jack reacted as expected anyway. “I can't help myself sometimes, okay.” Rhys turned back onto the bar now and faced the wall, continuing to talk to Jack.

“Mmh. You do NOT want to get involved with that. Trust me.” Jack stated, leaning back in the air to stretch and get comfortable, taking an invisible seat.

“Why not? I don't see anything wrong here... You're just salty that she's your ex.” Rhys replied. “She's smart, nice, and not to mention... really, really hot.”

“I-It's the make up...” Jack replied. “She's actually not all that great when she's not all dolled up like that. Kinda disappointing without the makeup, now that I recall. Oh, and not to mention, shes wayyy too old for you, R-Rhysie.”

“Oh c'mon.” Rhys did a double take at Moxxi over his shoulder and looked back at Jack with a skeptical expression. “How old could she possibly be? Not that it'd matter that much anyway...”

“Hey, I mean if you want to get freaky with someone who's _old enough to be your mother_ , then by all means, be my guest.” Jack shrugged. “She was pretty up there when I dated her, honestly probably why I broke it off.”

“Oh c'mon, seriously!?” Rhys looked back at Jack with disbelief. “You're lying.”

Jack clapped his hands together and leaned forward in his spot, addressing Rhys directly. “L-Let me put this in perspective for you kiddo.” “Her kids were young adults when I wa-was dating her, and mine was only like single digits still. T-That's the first red flag. Also, y'know who her k-kids were by the way, and how old they are now?”

“...Who's her kids.” Rhys asked regrettably.

“Well, y-you remember your buddy who c-comitted suicide on the m-makeshift ship to Helios?”

“...Scooter...?” Rhys glared at Jack for accusing the tragic accident as being a suicide.

“He's Ol' Mox's Son.”

“NO.” Rhys exclaimed with disgust now, actually realizing Jack wasn't lying and that Moxxi really was older than she looked. “Are you fucking kidding me-”

Jack chuckled. “Don't say I didn't warn you.”

 

“Hey, Rhys!” Moxxi called out to him from the other side of the bar. She was talking with Vaughn about something. “You got another minute?”

“Yeah.” Rhys left Jack and walked towards the pair. “What's up?”

“Your friend here was telling me more about your experience in the Vault.” Moxxi spoke. “What's this I hear about you draining Moonstones?”

“Oh... Yeah I'm not really sure what's up with it.” Rhys replied. “I just... I touched a very large Moonstone in the Vault and it kinda exploded. Now anytime I make contact with a Moonstone it just randomly drains.” Rhys shrugged. “I don't understand it.”

“Care to demonstrate?” Moxxi asked as she reached down and pulled out a Moonstone from under her bar counter.

“Sure.” Rhys stepped up to take the stone from her. “It doesn't react when it's in my cybernetics, but when I put it in my normal hand...”

“Wow...” Moxxi blinked and watched as the colour and light drained from the moonstone and it ended up pitch black in Rhys's hand.

“Yeah, I don't know what causes it.” Rhys handed her the drained stone. “I was told that this isn't normal either.”

“Whoever told you that is right, it's not normal.” Moxxi replied turning the moonstone over in her hands. “Both Vaughn and myself held it with no problem, but you... I mean I can easily understand why it doesn't react with your cybernetics, however...”

“It's a mystery, that's for sure.” Rhys shrugged.

“Yes, it most certainly is.” Moxxi looked up at the men. “If you guys are alright here on your own and just waiting around for a few quakes, if you don't mind I'd like to take this stone outback and run a few tests on it. See if I can come up with anything.”

“Go ahead.” Rhys granted her permission. “If anything comes up we will contact you.”

“Good luck.” Moxxi smiled at them and then dissipated into the back room.

 

“Wow.” Vaughn sighed. “You'd never think that someone like her would be-”

“She's too old for you.” Both Rhys and Jack spoke up in unison, copying each others actions and folding their arms while looking at Vaughn.

“What?” Vaughn looked back at Rhys. “B-but that's impossible, I mean have you _seen_ her?”

“It's the make up.”

“Aw man...” Vaughn sighed with disappointment.

Rhys reached out and patted Vaughn on the back. “Don't feel bad buddy, I fell for her too at first.”

“Yeah I know, but she just... And how she always... God, I'm stupid.” Vaughn pouted.

“Yep, I know how it is...” Rhys replied. “I know...”

 

Vaughn headed to sit back down with LB and Gortys. Rhys watched him leave and then checked around the bar to make sure no on else currently wanted to talk to him for the moment. When everyone was seemingly busy, he slipped into the bathroom, out of sight. Thankfully that was also empty. He took a deep breath, quickly looking himself over in the mirror, noticing that Jack didn't display a reflection in it for obvious reasons. He turned to speak with Jack.

 

“Alright so...”

“So what?” Jack spoke up. “So what's next? So what do we do now?”

“Shut up and maybe I'll figure that out.” Rhys replied with a scowl. “ _So_ , what do you know about my reaction to the Moonstones?”

“Oh, that.” Jack laughed. “Man, I dunno. It's freaking weird for one. Didn't even happen to m-me when I picked up Moonstones, so its obviously j-just a you problem.”

“Well if it's just a me problem, then why were you so interested in it? If you don't know what's going on, why am I wasting my time on you?”

Jack frowned. “Oh c'mon, I'm allowed to be c-c-curious about things, am I not? It IS interesting that y-you reacted that way, is it n-not?”

Rhys stared back at him. “Really? You're just curious? Forgive me but given your track record I can help but get the feeling that you actually know more about this than you're letting on.” Rhys turned around fully to now rest against the sinks, arms folded and questioning Jack.

Jack Smirked. “Perhaps I am. I mean, I-I'm getting a few... suggestions, b-but nothing I w-want to immediately act on.”

“Okay, another thing, why do you keep doing that?” Rhys suddenly changed the subject. “It's really annoying.”

“D-doing what?” Jacks image glitched out again.

“That.” Rhys pointed out. “You keep glitching out, like you're broken or something.”

“Well gee, I dunno Rhys. W-why don't you tell me why I-I keep doing this.” Jack responded back sarcastically. “I mean, y-you're the one who _ripped_ me o-out of your goddamn head. I-I mean, I'm nooo expert, but If I we-were to take a guess, I'd think that may have s-s-something to do with it.”

“Well, to be fair I am surprised you're even able to function without the main core in my head.” Rhys noted. “Thankfully, without that, you can't take over and control me anymore.”  
“Yeah I tried to upload w-what I could into the-the programming on the E-Echo Eye.” Jack admitted. “Pretty Shitty l-little program, honestly. C-Can't hold very much.”

“I think you're getting worse.” Rhys stated, looking at Jack's glitched appearance with concern.

“N-Nah, I'm fine...” Jack coughed and forced himself to blink out, then came back into existence again. “See, good as new.”

“I swear to god if I get a virus or something off of you...” Rhys paused. “Oh, wait, you already ARE a virus.”

“That's cold, Rhysie.” Jack frowned.

 

“...Y'know what, why do I still have you?” Rhys finally came to his senses. “You were corrupt to begin with but now you're like, double corrupt. What's the point in keeping you around?”

“Um, because I'm useful, duh.” Jack chuckled. “Don't forget that either.”

Rhys scoffed. “Useful? Hardly. All you've done thus far is annoy me. Oh, and also told me lies.”

“Lies? I don't lie unless I have to Rhys, and right now I have nothing worth lying about.”

“Oh really? Then how about all the bullshit you told me about Moxxi?” Rhys put the facts on the table. “She's clearly not near as bad as you make her out to be, and give that I know first hand what you're like, Moxxi and the rest of them had every reason not to trust you, and every right to betray you.”

Jack chuckled. “Yeah, y'know a lot of people seem to think the exact same way you do.” He paused. “Let me put it this way Rhys, if they didn't did what they did, I may still be alive, and Pandora may still be a better place. Everything that happened maybe wouldn't of happened, if they hadn't lied, cheated, and broke my trust first. Just sit on that, okay? Just sit on the fact of knowing what it would be like to have people who you thought were your friends, turn around and ruin your goddamn life, and make it their goal to kill you. All because they didn't trust you with something big, just based on the mere principle of it. They didn't even give you a chance.”

“And I care about that, why?” Rhys questioned.

“Look, all I'm saying is think about who the real person telling the lies here is.”

“And what, I suppose you don't tell lies then?” Rhys rolled his eyes.

“No, I don't. I tell it how it is.” Jack responded, folding his arms. “And if you got a problem with that, it's not my fault you don't like being told the truth about things.”

“Yeah, sorry but I'm not buying it.” Rhys shrugged. “Nice try though, and hey, don't get too comfortable being here again. I don't plan on keeping you.”

Jack grew noticeably agitated by this statement. “What! Why not! You promised you'd keep me as long as I helped you!”

“I don't _trust_ you to help me!” Rhys exclaimed back at him. “And I can't tell the others that I just went ahead and put you back in my head, they'd kill me!”

“Well then don't tell them!” Jack suggested. “It's not that hard, Rhys.”

“They will eventually catch on through!” Rhys explained. “The last time I started randomly talking to myself, they found out I was actually talking to you. They will find out again.”

“Not if you just like, ignore me, and only talk to me in the quiet seclusion of the men's bathroom.” Jack joked. “No one would ever find out then, unless your buddy Vaughn likes to follow you to the bathroom regularly, in which case-”

Rhys cut him off before he could finish that statement. “Listen, the guys, they don't know that I ended up keeping you, alright? After everything that happened, they assumed I got rid of you, somehow, and that you'd be gone forever. I never told anyone that I kept your lens on a shelf for a goddamn year and a half. I don't want to even imagine what I'd have to deal with if they found out I did this, and lied to them about it on top of it all.”

 

Jack took a moment to think, then addressed Rhys. “You kept me.”

“Yes.”

“You had the option to destroy me, to kill me for good, but instead you kept me.” Jack stated. “After everything I did to you, after everything that happened, even with you being so eager to remove me again, you still kept me.”

“Where are you going with this?” Rhys tilted his head to the side.

“Would you keep me again? Y'know, if you disconnected me. Just put me back up on the shelf, never to be seen again?” Jack looked back at Rhys, his expression not mocking or mean, he was seriously asking Rhys about this.

“Why does it matter to you?” Rhys asked.

“...Why did you keep me?”

Rhys was unable to answer, he only looked Jack over, and then turned his head away, remaining silent.

“If you can't answer that, you don't have a right to disconnect me.” Jack smirked now, his cocky tone coming back. “Admit it Rhys, you missed me.”

“I did not miss you!” Rhys shouted back, standing his ground. “And its my goddamn body, if I want to disconnect you I can and I will!”

“Well then do me a favour, when you disconnect me, destroy me for good. Spare me the pain.”

“Why are you so indecisive about death!?” Rhys complained. “One minute you're begging me to keep you alive, then next you're taunting me to kill you. Make up your mind!”

“I'm a program installed into a goddamn eye piece, do you really think I have a choice in my fate? If anyone should make up their mind here, it's you Rhys.” Jack pointed a finger at him. “It's up to you if I stay, or if I go. So why don't you make up your goddamn mind instead, and save us both the trouble. Do you want my _fucking_ help or not?”

Rhys paused. “...Stop trying to mess with me like this, I know you're scared.”

“Scared? Of what?”

“Of going back. Don't think I haven't noticed how you acted. You begged me on our last meeting not to disconnect you. Things like that don't just slip under the rug. Helping me out with this whole earthquake thing was your suggestion in response to stopping me from disconnecting you in the cave.” Rhys called Jack's bluff. “You're trying to act tough and all, but deep down, you're afraid.”

“Why do you care?”

“Why did I keep you.”

 

The pair fell silent, refusing to make eye contact. A good minute or two passed before any activity happened between them. Rhys suddenly moved, reaching for his eye.  
“Don't-” Jack tried to reach out and stop him, but phased through once again.

“You are scared.” Rhys scowled at him.

Jack sighed. “Ugh, okay fine. You don't understand alright, It's not as easy as you think it is. It's a lot more than just pulling the plug, for me at least.” Jack paused. “Listen Rhys, I said I'd help you, so I will. I'll behave, I promise. I have nothing to gain, and only my digital life to loose. I know Elpis like the back of my hand, so please, just keep me around a little bit longer.”

“How are we going to get around the gang?” Rhys suggested.

“Just don't act obvious. Ignore me, and only speak when you can. I can take hints, y'know. Or just give advice.” Jack replied.

“Yeah, and how am I supposed to react when you're being annoying.” Rhys raised an eyebrow at him.

“I'll try to be on my best behaviour, you have my word.” Jack replied. “Just... Just don't disconnect me. It's all I ask.”

“...Fine, but only for-”

 

Rhys was cut off by the violent shaking of the area, another quake had hit. He tried to steady himself by holding onto the sink, before making his way over to the door and out into the bar again.

Vaughn called out to the group. “There's our cue, time to get moving, guys!” He took up the device and some details he wrote on a map and started to head for the door, waiting for the others to follow him.

“I'm not finished with this conversation.” Rhys scolded Jack, and ran to catch up with the rest of the group.

“You and me both, cupcake.” Jack stated, following Rhys.

“Where's the quake?” Fiona asked Vaughn, trying to take a glimpse at his equipment.

“A few hundred kilometres south of here.” Vaughn replied.

“Let's head to a fast travel and see how close to the location we can get. It may buy us some time, and spare the long walk.” Sasha suggested.

“Right, sounds like a good idea. And if it's off by a bit, we'll just backtrack to the location. No problem.” Rhys acknowledged, and headed on his way with the rest of the group.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter has been Revised.


	12. The Old Factory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group makes little progress as they quickly loose the signal. They decide to keep walking and stop at the next Oxygen bubble and wait for another quake. The only thing that is nearby is an old robot factory, which, according to jack, was used to build the first Loader Bots that would later go on to be a signature robot from Hyperion. It doesn't take long for the group to get curious about whats on the inside and for Rhys to get help from Jack to enter. After a quick scare to Rhys by Fiona, they have a look around. The place was completely abandoned and their bot friends, LB and Gortys were feeling a bit uneasy seeing the remains of the old robots that were never finished hanging off the assembly line. An idea pops up and Rhys (with Jack) challenges the girls to a treasure hunt to find left over loot in the area. While Rhys finds a loot midget and successfully defeats it, claiming it's guns, the girls run into a bit of trouble. Instead of loot they found the generators for the factory and accidentally started it up. Trying to turn it off they turned the production line on and the factory started working again. They run back to the main lobby to inform Rhys and co about their mistake.

 

Vaughn digi-structed at the target location of the Fast Travel. He quickly stepped aside and watched as the rest of his friends filled in after him. The area they were in was only shaking slightly verses the effects they were feeling back in Concordia.

“Augh, we went too far out.” Vaughn frowned while looking over the cordinates on the device and comparing it to their current location.

“Well then, let's start walking back?” Rhys suggested.

“Yeah okay.” Vaughn replied and pressed a small button on the device causing it to let out a beep. “According to this, we need to head back...” He turned and pointed in a direction. “That way.”

“Oh, so it's going to be one of _those_ things, is it?” Sasha sighed. “Personally I think all of this is still a bunch of worrying for nothing and its just the natural volcanic activity and plates moving.”

“Oh my god, she's so stupid.” Rhys looked over his shoulder at the man who was offering up his unwanted two cents. “I-I mean yeah, she's not wrong that Elpis does have volcanoes and plate tectonics, b-but these kinds of quakes are not caused by that. Since Elpis h-has like a thin layer of ice as its crust caused by the carbon oxide nitrogen mixtures produced by some vents. D-due to that it d-d-doesn't cause normal earth quakes by just moving its plates, it's just like, sliding around on literal ice, so they don't clash as hard. Also a normal plate quake wouldn't be felt barely at all in a place l-like Concordia, since that's on the mi-middle of a plate. This is defiantly c-caused by something else.”

“God are you like, a walking Wikipedia or something?” Rhys quietly questioned Jack's knowledge.

“Sorta, yeah.” Jack shrugged. “I-I mean I was already smart to begin with, b-but you kinda find a lot o-of time on your hands for reading when you're reduced to nothing but an artificial intelligence stuck in some moron's head.”

Rhys rolled his eyes and ignored that last comment, sprinting slightly to catch up with the group since he had fallen behind a bit to talk with Jack. “Are we getting any close, Vaughn?”

“We seem to be on the right track, hopefully we can-” Vaughn stopped. The others also did, noticing that the ground wasn't vibrating anymore. “Aaaaand the signal is gone.” Vaughn sighed, frowning down at the now useless device in his hands.

 

“Well, now what do we do?” Sasha questioned.

“Okay, so we knew which way it was coming from, so why don't we keep walking?”

“But what if we go too far again?” Sasha questioned her. “I think we should just find an air bubble and chill for a bit.”

“Let's compromise” Vaughn spoke up. “We'll do what Fiona said and keep heading in the direction, and when we come across another air bubble, we'll stop and chillax there for a bit.”

“Hm, that could work.” Sasha admitted. “With all of the small abandoned places around here, I'm sure we'll find somewhere to hang out.”

“Rhys.” Vaughn turned to grab his attention. “Can you do a scan or something with your Echo tech and see if there's anything nearby?”

“Uh, yeah, I can try.” Rhys replied and pulled his arm up, a screen and a map popping up from it. “Let's see here...”

“Oh, that's a good spot right there.” Jack leaned over Rhys's shoulder and pointed to a spot on the map.

“What is it?” Rhys whispered, trying not to alert the others.

“It's nothing special, just an old abandoned robot factory.” Jack replied. “Used to be where we made the original Loader Bots.”

“Huh, well that doesn't sound too bad. Is it abandoned now?”

“Should be.” Jack confirmed and pulled back. “Then again with bandits literally everywhere, you can never really know for sure.”

“Well as long as it has air, we'll check it out.” Rhys said then put his arm down again and looked at the group. “Alright, there should be an abandoned factory not too far from here.”

“Oh, sounds interesting.” Fiona smirked at the thought. He naturally curious nature kicking in. “What kind of factory?”

“Just some old robot production place that Hyperion used to own and operate.” Rhys explained. “It should be abandoned now and also still have air.”

“Let's go there then.” Vaughn started to walk in the direction.

“Oh! Oh! Do you think we will meet some new friends?” Gortys questioned.

“...Doubt it.” LB looked down at her as they walked. “Abandoned normally means there is no one there anymore... That includes robots.”

“Aw...” Gortys sighed. “Oh well, I'm sure it will still be fun!”

 

The group pressed on, walking mostly in silence, as they searched for the factory. Minutes passed by before Gortys spoke up again, wanting to break the awkward silence.

“Hey, who here wants to hear a funny joke?”

“Oh boy, this should be good.” Jack groaned sarcastically.

“Sure, go ahead.” Rhys smiled at Gortys, encouraging her to tell her joke, just to annoy Jack if anything.

“What do you call a robot on a farm?” Gortys asked, looking back up at Rhys.

“Hmm... A... uh... I don't know.” Rhys shrugged at her, waiting for the punchline.

“A _Transfarmer!”_ Gortys exclaimed with a giggle.

The rest of the group laughed at the joke as well, except for jack, who only sighed in annoyance.

“Wow, that was a clever one, Gortys.” Fiona stated.

“Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week!” Gortys announced happily.

“God that thing is stupidly adorable, its like a Claptrap mixed with a Loader Bot. I hate it.” Jack folded his arms and floated along with Rhys's pace.

 

“Hey guys! Look up ahead!” Vaughn pointed out the building that started to emerge on the horizon. “We found it!”

“Just in time too!” Sasha ran up a nearby hill and got a birds eye view of the factory's outskirts. “I see a dormant air machine by the entrance there.”

“It's about time.” Fiona sighed. “My oxygen was starting to get low.”

“Well, c'mon then!” Sasha exclaimed and took advantage of her height, boosting from the hill and gliding in the zero-G to land next to the air machine. She quickly flipped it on, making an air bubble. She took a deep breath. “Ah, that feels good.”

“It's always so weird switching between an oxygen field and the helmet.” Rhys stated, walking up to stand next to Sasha. “But hey, at least it's better than having no oxygen at all.”

“I mean, you'd be the only one here who would know what it's like without oxygen.” Sasha giggled. “Leave it to you to run out on the moon without an Oz Kit.”

“Hey, cut me some slack. How was I supposed to know?” Rhys frowned.

“Y-you did what?” Jack laughed at Rhys. “Oh my g-god you absolute idiot.”

“Shut up!” Rhys snapped.

“Jeez, Rhys, I'm only teasing you.” Sasha looked at him lopsidedly after he snapped. Rhys had briefly forgotten the others couldn't hear or see Jack.

“Oh... Right... Sorry.” Rhys awkwardly shifted. “I guess low oxygen was just getting to me, that's all.”

“Right, so remind me not to tell jokes when your Oz is low from now on.” Sasha rolled her eyes, and pushed past Rhys to head towards the factory's entrance.

 

“Wow!” Gortys rolled up to the large, rusted, metal doors that was at the edge of the air bubble. “Just look at the size of this place!”

“This must be the main entrance.” Sasha said, sizing the place up as well.

“So, Hyperion used to make bots here?” Vaughn questioned Rhys.

“Yeah, like the very first Loader Bots and stuff.” Rhys replied. “Though I assume as designs progressed, it went out of production and was abandoned pretty early on.”

“Huh... How do you feel about that information, LB?” Vaughn looked towards the yellow coloured robot.

“I feel like one who is just discovering their ancestor for the first time.” LB simply responded.

“Cool.” Vaughn said.

“Where did my ancestors come from?” Gortys questioned.

“Probably back at my ATLAS facility.” Rhys told her. “You are ATLAS tech y'know.”

“Oh yeah... That's cool!” She smiled. “Are there any other Robots like me back home?”

“I haven't really had a chance to look, the place is still in kind of a mess.” Rhys admitted. “But, I'll tell you what. When we get back home, I'll take you to the facility to have a look around. I'm sure we'll find something.”

“Really! That's awesome! Thank you Rhys!” She smiled widely back at him.

“You're very welcome.” Rhys nodded.

 

“Hmm...” Fiona looked over the doors. “I wonder what's been hiding in there for all of these years?”

“Oh yeah sure, just go ahead and instantly break into my facility. That's fine. Not like I can do anything. Does she do that to your place too, Rhys? Just y'know instantly want to break in and raid it?” Jack frowned, leaning against the structure of the door.

“I mean, I don't blame her for her eagerness, I kinda wanna know what's in there too.” Rhys replied under his breath. “Besides, you're the one who suggested we come here, you didn't say anything about not going into it. Also Hyperion is gone, you're a helpless AI, what do you have to protect in here?”

“I mean, that may be true, but it's still rude to just break in like this.” Jack replied.

“I don't really care-”

“Did you say something?” Fiona looked over at Rhys.

“Oh, hm? Me? No, nothing.” Rhys was starting to get too good a playing his conversations with Jack off, but he was also getting caught a lot more too. “I mean, uh, I was thinking about what kind of things are beyond these doors. Can you imagine the kinds of loot that would of been stored in here? Hyperion is known for leaving a mess behind when they abandon a project.”

“Hell yeah, I bet there's tons of awesome stuff in here.” Fiona got a little excited at the mention of loot. Her Vault Hunter lifestyle was very easy to get adjusted to, and once she started looking for epic treasure, she couldn't resist any chance to find more. “Hey, looks like there's a small control panel by the door here...” She smirked. “Wanna find out what's hidden within?”

Fiona walked up to the panel and Rhys followed her. “Do you think it still has power, even?” Rhys questioned her, looking over the rusted keypad.

“Probably, I mean, that old place you were in at the core still worked, didn't it?” Fiona side eyed him.

“That is true, yeah.” Rhys agreed.

“So, let's have it Rhys. You're the cyborg here, get us in.” Fiona stepped aside to let Rhys have full access to the panel. “You're from Hyperion, you should be able to hack this easy enough.”

“Listen just because I worked there doesn't mean I automatically know everything about it-”

“The code is 44578913” Jack spoke up.

Rhys rolled his eyes at Jack instantly telling him a code to try. He walked up to the panel and punched it in. It took a minute but the doors eventually started to move, as the code was indeed correct. They creaked and screeched as the pair stood back and waited for them to finish opening. The doors couldn't open all the way due to the rust and eventually got jammed, making the most painful of shrieks before the system gave up on trying to open the doors. It was just enough space for them to walk through, however.

“So, looks like you do know everything after all.” Fiona smirked at him.

“Oh please, it was just a fluke.” Rhys brushed her off, following the group into the factory.

 

The factory was dark and each footstep echoed off the metal surroundings as they stepped inside. The sounds they made aside, the factory was dead silent. Quiet, almost too quiet. The bots stayed close to each other, both feeling uneasy about the location, as they followed closely behind the group. The only light to help them see was the dim light coming from the doorway.

 

“I don't like this place...” Gortys said as she stuck close by to LB.

“I do not like it either... It feels... Empty.” LB replied.

“Well yeah, it's going to be empty. It is abandoned.” Rhys looked back at the pair. “I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.”

“I wonder if there's still a working light switch around here somewhere...” Vaughn said as he squinted, trying to look around in the inky blackness.

“Hey Rhys, can I borrow a light for a minute?” Fiona called out to Rhys and the group as she had already wandered off on her own into the darkness. “I think there's something there you guys need to see-” Her sentence was cut off suddenly, with no follow up.

“Fi?” Sasha noticed that her sister suddenly stopped talking. “Fiona! Are you okay!?”

“I'll go check.” Rhys said, switching the light on his hand and shining it in the direction Fiona went.

“I hope she's okay...” Sasha frowned in worry, watching Rhys head in the same direction Fiona went.

“Fiona!” Rhys called out, his voice echoing off the walls. The way it reunted to him in the surrounding darkness made a cold shiver go down his spine. “Fiona, where did you go? Sasha's worrying about you already...”

 

He turned a corner and was now out of sight of the others. He was suddenly alone. The metal continued to creak eerily under him with each footstep. Shadows would catch him out of the corner of his eye, causing him to flinch, and check each time it happened. There was faint rumbling from further down the factory. Overall Rhys really didn't like the situation he had just ended up in.

“F-Fiona...” Rhys called out again, fear starting to wrap its way around his voice. He started to shine his light everywhere, backing up and questioning every sound he heard. “Fiona, if this is some sick prank or something it... It's not funny!”

Rhys turned another corner and froze as he shone his light down to the end of the hallway. There standing at the end of it, casting a shadow against the wall, was a black figure shrouded in darkness. It was human in shape, but Rhys wasn't entirely sure if it actually _was_ human or not. It didn't move when he shone the light at it. He called out to them, slowly making his way down the hallway.

“Fiona... Fi... that's you right? H-Hey, talk to me. A-are you okay?” Rhys reached a shaky hand out, now standing behind the figure. He slowly placed his hand on the shoulder, attempting to turn them around. “Fiona-”

“BLARG!”

“A-AAAAHHH”

 

Fiona quickly removed the scary old bandit mask she found and tried to keep herself from dying of laughter. “Oh my god, Rhys!” She snickered.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!” Rhys exclaimed at Fiona and scowled, holding a hand close to his chest and trying to calm his heart rate.

“Oh c'mon, it was funny!” Fiona smirked.

“No, it was not!” Rhys whined. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“No, she's right. Defiantly funny.” Jack looked at Rhys from the other side of the hallway, a shit eating grin plastered on his face as well. “You screamed like a little girl, classic!”

“Grrr...” Rhys gritted his teeth, trying to stand straighter and regain his composure. He started to turn to leave, heading back to re-group with the others.

“Awh, go back to our friends now, all scared with your tail between your legs.” Fiona chuckled, slowly following behind him.

“Y'know, she has a great sense of humour. I like her.” Jack stated, also following Rhys back down the hallway.

Rhys saw the group standing up ahead, waiting for him. They knew what just happened, they heard it, obviously. They chuckled softly as he approached.

“Not you guys too...” Rhys frowned and went to go lean against the far corner of the factory's lobby, sulking and completely annoyed with everyone now.

“Oh, so you were the one who screamed like a girl?” Sasha laughed.

“Damn right he is.” Fiona walked into the area, mask still in hand. “Man you guys should of seen his face.”

“You're an asshole, Fi.” Rhys sneered at her.

“Oh, I know, but damn was it funny.” She smiled at him. “Lighten up and learn to laugh at yourself a little, Rhys. Or is the big bad company man too tough to be made fun of once in awhile?”

“I can lighten up, but I bet you'd feel the same way if something like that was directed at you.” Rhys commented and looked away.

“Whatever.” Fiona sighed and rolled her eyes.

“You guys didn't happen to see a light switch of any sort while you were back there, did you?” Vaughn questioned them.

“Nope. I was looking for one but then got a little sidetracked with scaring Rhys shitless.” Fiona stated.

“I was too busy looking for her and being worried she had fallen down a hole and died, only to be betrayed like that, so I didn't exactly see or care for a light switch at the time.” Rhys replied bluntly.

“Aw, you were worried for me Rhys?” Fiona smiled at him.

“...No, of course not. I could care less if you fell down and scraped your knee after that stunt you pulled. I was only worried because I was worried about how Sasha would feel when I tell her that you died.” Rhys scowled.

Fiona only chuckled in response.

 

“I think I know where the switch may be.” Jack walked a little ways away from Rhys and looked around. He paused for a moment before spotting something, and walking towards the far side wall. “Bingo, here it is!”

“I don't care, Jack...” Rhys mumbled, adverting his eyes from where Jack pointed out. “They can find it on their own.”

“I highly doubt it, unless you wanna be here for a few hours. They are kinda stupid.” Jack replied. “L-look Rhysie, it's right here! The switch is just, right there! On the wall! C'mon boy, come turn it on for me! I mean I'd just flip it myself but... Y'know” Jack went to reach for the switch and just phased through the wall, he looked back at Rhys, continuing his prodding. “C'mon Rhyise, here boy, right here, the switch is just right there, turn it on for me. C'mon... Please?”

Rhys huffed and eventually removed himself from the wall, walking over to Jack to fill out his request, mainly just getting annoyed with his constant pet calling in an attempt to convince him to help in the first place. “I found the switch.” Rhys announced as he purposely stuck a hand right through Jack and turned the switch on.

 

There was a loud hum and eventually the lights flickered on and off a few times before eventually staying on. They weren't overly bright but lit up the factory much better than it was before, they could actually see things now.

“Nice job, Rhys.” Vaughn replied and went to go explore the area a bit now that he could see more of it. “Oh... Whoa....”

“...Oh.” LB looked up now as well. Hanging above them was a bunch of empty husks of old Loader Bots that were unfinished and just left hanging from an assembly line that ran further back into the building.

“Is this what you meant when you said you felt a bit uneasy?” Rhys questioned as he walked up to LB and Gortys.

“Yes.” LB replied bluntly.

“This place is... Creepy.” Gortys said as she stared up at the bots that swung slightly with an unknown breeze, causing their metal to creek and squeak quietly. “I have a feeling that they aren't just taking a nap, are they?”

Fiona walked up and patted Gortys on the head. “Hey, it's okay. These things just happen sometimes.”

“I know, I hate to admit it but... I know...” Gortys sighed. “Its just sad, y'know?”

Jack busted out laughing, breaking the silance and causing Rhys too look at him with mild confusion. “Hah, that's rich! The way you act you'd almost think they're scared or something, but robots can't be scared they don't have emotions, they're just computers. Any emotions they display is just fake and not actually real.” He paused for a minute then looked up at all the old Loader Bots. “Then again, I supposed I too would be creeped out suddenly walking into a graveyard of all of my past prototypes.”

“You're in insensitive prick, Jack.” Rhys growled at him.

“Thank you, I do try my best.” Jack smirked smugly at Rhys, not offended by the comment in the slightest. “You're no better though, really. I-I mean considering how insensitive you were t-to all those people that you-”

“I'm not having this conversation again.” Rhys walked away from the AI, returning his focus back to the rest of the group.

 

“Well, old robots aside, do you guys think there's any loot in this place?” Fiona looked at them with a wide smile.

“Maybe, kinda depends on what sort of loot you're looking for.” Rhys replied.

“Anything, really.” Fiona said. “Guns, money, trinkets... Anything I don't want for myself I can sell. Only after I checked to see if Sasha wanted it first, of course.”

“Some new guns for my collection would be pretty cool.” Sasha said.

“Well then, if she wants guns, she's come to the right place!” Jack spoke up again.

“Well, the lights are on... So...” Rhys spoke. “Why don't we go look for some loot?”

“What, and have to share the loot when we find it?” Fiona laughed. “I'll do you one better, first one to find the loot gets to claim the best rewards from it, losers get the scraps.”

Rhys smirked at her challenge. “Alright, you're on! I am confident I can find better loot than you.”

“I doubt it.” Fiona replied. “C'mon Sash, you helping me out?”

“Heck yeah I am!” Sasha excitedly joined Fiona's side.

“Vaughn, you're just not going to let me be outnumbered like this, are you?” Rhys looked towards his best friend.

“Yep.” Vaughn didn't even bother to look up from the piece of equipment he was tinkering with nearby.

“Wait, what.” Rhys stared back at him, a bit hurt by the fact Vaughn actually refused to join him.

“Looks like we can get a head start, c'mon Sasha.” Fiona spoke and her and Sasha quickly started to sprint off, heading deeper into the factory.

“H-hey!” Rhys called after them then looked back at Vaughn with a frown. “C'mon bro, are you actually going to leave me hanging like this? You can look at the stupid equipment later.”

Vaughn looked up finally from his work. “Tell you what, I'll come give you back up if you need it.” Vaughn offered. “I'm kinda more interested in this old Hyperion tech than I am a few guns to be honest.”

“Ugh, fine.” Rhys folded his arms and pouted. “You're such a nerd sometimes.”

“Could be worse.” Vaughn stated with a smirk.

“How so?”

“I could be a giant dork, like you.” He looked back at Rhys.

“Oh, very funny.” Rhys rolled his eyes. “Okay, fair enough, you stay and play with your dumb Hyperion toys.” Rhys turned to leave. “I'm gonna head off now.”

“Good luck in your findings bro.” Vaughn said, and then headed over to another section of the main lobby, looking at more of the computers and equipment.

 

“Hey, you're not completely alone, y'know!” Jack blinked in next to Rhys. “You've got me!”

“Oh, wonderful.” Rhys rolled his eyes as he continued to walk in the opposite direction that the girls went. “I'm destined to loose now.”

“God, why are you so resentful about everything I do?” Jack complained, scowling at Rhys. “You've got to learn to look on the bright side of things, Rhysie!” Jack leaned back in the air while floating a bit ahead of Rhys. “Listen, you're on a treasure hunt in a place you don't know about. You haven't been here b-before, and your friends haven't e-either! Me however, I know this place like the back of my hand...”

“So you're suggesting I trust your knowledge and use you to my advantage?” Rhys clued in. “How do I know you won't lead me to some death trap or something?”

“Oh c'mon Rhys, I already agreed to behave and help you, I do have my life on the line y'know.” Jack replied. “H-having a little trust wouldn't kill ya, y'know.”

“Actually the last time I trusted you, it did actually almost kill me.” Rhys stated.

“Almost, key word there is almost.” Jack tried to make up more excuses. “Look, that's n-not going to ha-happen again. Okay? Just trust me this time. Y-You do want to win this little bet, right?”

“...I do, yeah.” Rhys admitted.

Jack stood up and stated walking. “Alright then, I mean, w-who's better to go treasure hunting with in an old Hyperion factory than the guy who set it up!”

“...I hate to admit it but you make a very convincing point.” Rhys looked over to him.

“Of course I do, because I know what I'm talking about.” Jack smiled. “Now c'mon, follow me if you want to show those girls who the superior sex is.” He started walking back towards the area of which Fiona's jump scare was staged.

Rhys followed him. “I mean, it would be great to get something to rub salt into the wounds. Something that Fiona and Sasha would be really jealous of. Y'know, something I can use to knock their ego down a few notches.”

“I know exactly what kind of loot you need to do that, then.” Jack said. “You deserve to get even with them, as funny as their torment may be, they have been p-putting you down a lot ever since you got here.”

“It's nothing too harsh.” Rhys corrected him. “They are just playing around, and y'know maybe they're right, I should try to lighten up a bit. However, I will admit that Fiona at least, has changed. She's been a bit cocky lately ever since she took up her Vault Hunting full time.”

Jack stopped for a moment. “So she took up the life of a bandit? What a shame.”

“Well, I wouldn't exactly call Vault Hunters bandits...” Rhys stated. “I know a few of them personally, and they all seem like pretty reasonable people.”

“Jesus, what _have_ you been doing since I've been gone?” Jack asked. “How many more goddamn lies are these people going to feed to you, Rhys?”

“...What do you mean?” Rhys looked at Jack a bit concerned by the statement. “I honestly haven't had any problems with them, I don't understand what kind of lies they could possibly be telling me.”

“Oh yeah, sure, you say that now. They're friendly, they like you, you're making friends. You trust them, they have no reason to lie to you...” Jack sighed. “Just wait until they turn around and stab you in the back, then suddenly you'll see all of the lies you should of picked up on in the first place. When you get fucked over because you're too quick to trust people you don't actually know, don't come crying to me about it, because all I'm going to have for you is a big fat, I told you so.”

“...Listen Jack, clearly you still hold a lot of anger about what happened to you. But just because they did it to you, someone who deserved it I may add, doesn't mean they are bad people. They did what they did to you because they had to, and they have absolutely no reason to hate me, no reason not to trust me, because I wasn't like you Jack. I'll never be you Jack, so stop trying to compare us all the time.” Rhys spoke up. “Unlike you, I actually do know these people. Fiona's my friend, she wasn't at first but since everything happened, she kinda warmed up to me, and we're friends now. That's kinda how stuff happens. We made amends, things changed, and now we're here. She's a Vault Hunter, and I trust her. If this is what she want's to do with the rest of her life, then I will support her in that choice. If anything, its far better than being a con artist if you ask me.”

“Y-yeah, and a con artist is better than a dirty bandit, if you were to ask me.” Jack quickly shot back. “And to think I was actually starting to like her.”

Rhys chuckled, picking up on what Jack actually meant by that statement. “You're not her type.” He said.

“Hm?” Jack looked back at Rhys. “What do you mean, I'm not her type.”

“She's not into demented psychopaths” Rhys explained. “Sorry, but you're shit out of luck.”

“As I said, what a shame.” Jack shrugged. “She doesn't know what she's missing out on. You know, back in the day, even though a-a-a lot of people hated me, there was still twice that number in women who would kill for a date with me.”

“I think Fiona's part of the numbers who would just straight up kill you.” Rhys replied. “Doesn't matter either way though, you're already dead, remember? How do you plan on keeping up a relationship with not just Fiona, but anyone when you're living inside my head?”

“Well I mean, if you wanna go through the trouble of uploading me into another power core and sticking me back into your head head so I can control you again, I'm sure we could work something out.” Jack suggested.

“Such as...?” Rhys played along just to see where this was going.

“I use your body as a personal puppet to enjoy myself and interact with people, and in return I do not attempt to kill you after all.” Jack finished.

“Gross.” Rhys said, then realized. “Hey, wait a minute! You don't kill me after all? Oh, so you're still stuck on the plans to kill me as soon as you can?”

Jack hesitated for a minute, looking away as he was clearly caught red handed. “...Maybe. But again, if we agree on that game plan, then you wouldn't have to worry about that.”

“Yeah, no thank you. I'd rather not be re-branded as 'Handsome Rhys'.” Rhys shivered at the thought of Jack taking over his body for reasons like that.

“Hey, it's your funeral.” Jack shrugged.

 

“Where are you leading me in here, anyway?” Rhys changed the subject. “This is the same place Fiona was hiding in.”

“Yeah, it is.” Jack confirmed. “And while I was watching that whole thing go down, I noticed a little something here. Honestly if Fiona claims to be such a great Vault Hunter, I'm surprised she didn't notice it first.” He started to walk around. “There's this little out of place panelling on the wall, it should be right... about... here.” Jack stopped in front of one of the wall panels. It was clearly sealed off.

“Its built into the wall, Jack.” Rhys frowned at him, now noticing how the pannel was slightly off too, but still connected. “How do you expect me to open and get in there?”

“There should be a switch around here somewhere.” Jack said, as he pointed to a wire that stuck out from behind the panel. “See that cord, follow it.”

“...Okay.” Rhys did, tracing the power cord with his eyes and following up the wall, across the ceiling and back down the hallway. It continued along and then cut around the corner, leading straight up into a higher part of the facility. “How am I supposed to get up there?” Rhys turned back to Jack, noting that the stairs that lead to the upper floor were rusted and collapsed in, beyond use.

“You need to learn to live a little, kiddo!” Jack replied. “Take some risks, almost get killed!” He motioned to the broken stairwell. “C'mon, there's still a few steps in tact, and sure it looks pretty old but I'm sure it will hold.”

“I've already taken risks and almost died lots of times, I'm kinda done with that now.” Rhys replied. “I think I'll pass on that death trap excuse for a set of stairs.” Rhys folded his arms. “I guess I'll just accept defeat.”

“No! I am not going to loose to a couple of girls because you're afraid to climb up there.” Jack frowned at Rhys, and looked around the area for another idea. “Look, there's a crate over there, push it here and use that to climb up on instead.”

“It still won't be high enough to reach-” Rhys stated.

“You have an Oz Kit, dummy.” Jack stated. “Use it to do a double jump, you'll gain enough air to reach the 2nd floor.”

“...Fine.” Rhys sighed and went to drag the crate over. It was heavier than expected but he did eventually manage to push it into place. “Y'know, I'd tell you to do this shit yourself, but you can't.” Rhys scowled at Jack.

“Nope, I can't. But even if I could, I still wouldn't do it honestly. You're the one who challenged them, not me.” Jack smirked and floated up to the 2nd floor platform, waiting for Rhys. “C'mon, we don't have all day. Just climb up and jump, it's not that hard.”

“Can you give me a minute!” Rhys exclaimed with annoyance as he also struggled to climb on top of the large crate. He steadied himself on top, then looked back up at Jack. “Right, okay... So how do I...”

“Just jump.” Jack called back down to him, now sitting on the edge and watching this all pan out. “Jump up and reach for the platform, and your Oz Kit should kick in and give you the extra boost that you need to reach it. There is gravity here though, so b-brace for a landing.”

“Sounds easy enough... O-okay, I think I g-got it.” Rhys took a moment to ready himself, moving to the back side of the crate to give himself some room for momentum, and then sprinted into a jump, reaching out for the platform and praying Jack wasn't lying to him and he'd actually make the jump. Rhys obviously missed, quickly landing face first into the floor with a loud thud.

 

“O-o-oh m-my go-god. You i-id-idiot!” Jack heavily glitched out in response to Rhys smacking his head. “J-just when I-I-I was star-starting to s-stabilize, too.”

“Your method didn't work!” Rhys shouted back at him, sitting up and rubbing his forehead. “This is your own fault!”

“N-no, it's s-still yours!” Jack called back. “Y-y-you got your g-goddamn ox-oxygen conservation on, d-dummy!” Jack pointed at Rhys's Oz Kit. “F-flip the d-damn sw-swich.”

“Oh... Whoops” Rhys smiled sheepishly back at Jack and then flipped the switch, climbing back up on the crate for take two. He repeated the steps and actually made it to the 2nd floor this time.

“A-about time.” Jack sneered and stood up. “T-that took way longer t-then it ne-needed to.”

“Yeah okay, sorry, that one was my bad. I'll admit that was dumb of me to have the safety switch on.” He sighed. “Are... You okay?”

“As fine a-a-as a b-bro-broken AI pro-program can b-be.” Jack replied, blinking in and out again. “I was s-starting to get s-sta-stable but you had to g-g-g-go and hit your s-stupid d-dumb head of yours.”

“I'm sorry.” Rhys apologized again. “But what is it that's causing you to break out in glitches every time I take damage?”

“B-beats me.” Jack replied. “Its l-like a disk sk-skipping in an Echo recorder when you k-knock it around. So-some loose wiring m-ma-maybe?”

“Huh... I'll have to take a look at it later.” Rhys said. “At least you're still holding on, though.”

“W-whatever.” Jack replied. “J-just go hit that SW-switch over t-” He blinked out and then back in again, loosing the rest of his sentance.

“I'll do that. Hit the switch, loot the room, and then head back to the main lobby to wait for the girls to rub the sweet loot into their faces.” Rhys stated and headed over to flip the switch. There was the sound of a large amount of power being cut and then depleting with the satisfying shut down noise the followed it.

“Great! L-let's go back a-and reap the re-rewards.” Jack floated back down to the first floor.

“Sounds good to me.” Rhys followed him, taking his time getting back down jumping from the platform back to the crate and then climbing down to the solid ground. They both made their way back to where the sealed wall was.

 

The wall was now opened and lead into a small dark room that had no lights. Rhys could barely see into the room with the bad lighting that poured out from the hallway. There wasn't anything that spark much interest in the room aside from scrap metal and other junk. There was a large Hyperion chest in the back of the room that did catch his eye, however.

“There she is!” Jack exclaimed and walked up to the chest and attempted to push the button on it, before reality struck him again and he watched his finger just phase into it. “D-dammit..”

“Allow me.” Rhys said and walked up behind him, having Jack step aside as we went to push the button, unlocking the chest. Rhys would be lying if he were to say he wasn't feeling at least a little bit excited as he stood back and watch the chest slowly open itself up. He still remembered the rush he got from looting the Vault of the Traveller with Fiona way back when that was a thing. This feeling, it was a good feeling.

In a swift motion the chest unfolded into a large shelf, displaying the weapons that were contained inside it. There actually wasn't anything in the chest worth any real value, leaving both of the men disappointing. Nothing but a few pistols, all of which were white quality, and one green rocket launcher.

“Well, t-that's dis-disappointing.” Jack scoffed and started to walk out of the room.

“Yeah...” Rhys started to leave too. “I guess we just gotta keep looking.”

“The girls h-have probably already fou-found something b-b-better.” Jack frowned.

“Well good for them, they're the ones who would of gotten the most use out of it anyway.” Rhys said.

 

Suddenly there was the sound of metal moving and scraping against each other, followed up by the faint sound of footsteps behind Rhys.

“Uh, Jack?” Rhys stopped walking upon hearing the noise.

“Hm?” Jack kept walking even though Rhys stopped, he was only half paying attention.

“That chest wasn't rigged or anything, was it?” Rhys asked, catching his attention now.

Jack stopped, turning and looking back at Rhys. “Uh no, it shouldn't of been anyway. I wouldn't lead you to anything that could kill you, because it'd kill me too, Rhys.”

“I know that, but...” Rhys turned around.

“AIEIAIEAIEIAAIEAIEAIEAIA!”

Rhys suddenly screamed and ducked for cover as a small midget with a loot bag on its back ran out of the room, chasing Rhys, screaming with its guns blazing.

“Oh hey, would you look at that. A l-loot midget! N-neato!” Jack smirked, watching as Rhys ran away from the little demon. “You s-should totally k-kill him. As the n-na-name implies, he has loot.”

“I think I'll focus on having him not kill me instead!” Rhys exclaimed, finding himself cornered now and having no choice but to turn and face the Midget. He reached for his side and took out his stun baton, flipping a switch and turning it on, holding it out in front of him. He swung it wildly at the midget, causing it to stop in its tracks. “Back! Get back! I am not afraid to use this!”

“Oh for the love of- Rhys he has a g-g-gun! Two of them act-actually! A stun baton is n-not going to-”

Jack quickly shut up and ate his own words as he watched Rhys suddenly throw the baton at the midget, shocking and stunning it. He quickly ducked out of the way and swiftly picked the baton back up, as he made a mad dash back for the room with the weapon's chest. The midget quickly came back to it's senses and turned to chase after Rhys once again. All that baton did was annoy the midget, causing him to shoot twice as fast and scream more angrily at Rhys. Rhys quickly thought on his feet and eyed the rocket launcher in the chest. He grabbed it, struggling to support it's weight a little bit, and aiming at the doorway, waiting for the midget to get close before-

 

_Boom._

 

He set off the rocket launcher, hitting the midget head on and blowing him up into a bunch of smaller pieces. Blood and guts splattered and covered the walls and floors of the tiny room's entrance. Rhys also got pushed back by the Rocket, loosing his balance and hitting the back of his head against the chest, thus knocking Jack permanently out of existence.

“S-shit.” Rhys groaned and attempted to stand up, holding his head. His back was also sore now from the impact of the hard metal slamming up against it. “You'd think with all this I-I'd be dead by now... But I'm not.”

“Rhys!” There was the sound of Vaughn's voice as it bounced off the metal walls, followed by his footsteps that quickly got louder as he approached Rhys's location. He found Rhys in the room, standing in the doorway. “Are you okay? I heard the noise and-” Vaughn paused and looked at the blood and burnt bits from the explosion that covered the doorway. He also eyed the two purple quality guns that sat in the middle of the whole mess within a puddle of blood. “Wow Rhys!” Vaughn said picking up one of the guns. “Did you find these?”

“Oh, so now you care about treasure hunting.” Rhys smirked and walked up to Vaughn, taking the other gun up off the floor. He examined it, being easily turned off by the blood and guts that coated it. “They're uh, a bit messy.”

“Eh, it can be washed off.” Vaughn replied. “C'mon, lets take these back to the lobby, the girls are going to be so jealous!”

“Heh, yeah they are! We can rub it in their faces and be... Generally not nice people about it!” Rhys smiled.

“Yeah we can, bro!”

“Bro.”

“Brooooo.”

“BRO.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Have you found anything yet?” Fiona called out to Sasha.

“Ugh, no.” Sasha sighed. “Nothing but scrap metal everywhere.”

“Yeah, same here. I'm convinced there's nothing in this factory worth taking at all.” Fiona sighed. “If Rhys actually manages to find something, I'm going to be super upset.”

“He will probably rub it in your face if he does find something, y'know like the little jerk he can be sometimes.” Sasha replied and headed back towards Fiona.

“This sucks!” Fiona complained. “I came here to find a vault, that turned out to be a bust, and now I at least wanted to find something here, and I'm met with nothing but dust and rust.” She kicked a nearby generator out of frustration.

The two girls were startled as the machine roared to life with just the simple kick it received. “Uh, Fi?” Sasha looked at Fiona with worry. “What did you do?”

“I...I don't know!” Fiona replied and quickly located a switch on the side of the generator. “But help me stop it!” She yanked down on the switch but it wouldn't budge, rusted and too heavy to move on only her strength alone.

“I got you, sis.” Sasha smiled and was by Fiona's side, taking hold of the switch to help her. “Ready? One. Two. Three!”

The pair yanked down with all their force on the switch. It moved and cracked with the rust. They quickly let go of it and it activated, quickly springing back to it's starting position. The generator suddenly screamed now with the sounds of old rusty pieces of metal starting to life inside of it. The sounds increased as the whole area soon started to shake and echo with the sounds of machines starting up and metal scraping against other pieces of metal.

“I don't think that was an off switch!” Fiona exclaimed as they both stepped back and watched the machines wake up. They looked up and saw that the robots above them were also starting to move again along the assembly line.

“It wasn't!” Sasha Sasha said. “I think we just started up the factory again!”

“This... Might be a problem.” Fiona replied. “C'mon, let's get back to the others, quickly!” She took Sasha by the wrist and ran with her back towards the main lobby.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter has been revised.


	13. Bowels of Mistrust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an attempt to shut down the factory that Fiona and Sasha accidentally started up the group travels deeper into the area, looking for the main control room to shut it down. They have to traverse though tork infested areas and run into a problem with the creatures that easily overwhelm them and surround them. While fighting them off the Queen awakens and challenges them, posing a threat. Rhys eventually manages to defeat with the help of Jack's advice and his friends. The Queen is killed allowing them to go deeper. Eventually they hit the central storage area where the assembly line ends and all the old robots were piling up in. Rhys locates the main computer terminal but is unsuccessful in turning it off due to security. This gives Jack the opportunity to step up and take a shot at it, requesting remote access to the system. Jack quickly takes advantage and soon the facility is shut down... only to start back up again and trap the group of friends, with every robot in the room activating and aiming to kill them. Rhys gets angry and due to it discovered hidden powers he didn't know he possessed. He uses these powers to thwart Jack's plan and get everyone out safely. Rhys then tells his friends the truth of what's going on.

Rhys and the rest of the group flinched as the heard the loud sounds of the factory suddenly starting up again. They looked overhead to see the assembly line moving again. Robots were being loaded into another part of the factory of which they have not been to yet. Sasha and Fiona were heard further down the halls, running back to meet up with the rest of the group. They looked both worried, and guilty.

 

“What did you two do!?” Rhys exclaimed, knowing that they were the only ones that could have caused something like this to happen.

“We may or may not have accidentally started the factory up again.” Sasha said, out of breath from running.

“I think it's about time we got out of here.” Fiona suggested.

“We can't just leave, not now!” Vaughn said. “We have to shut this place down first, we can't leave it running!”

“Aw, what harm could it- Whoa!” Sasha's eye was caught by the gun that Rhys was holding. “Where did you...”

“Remember our little bet to find some good loot?” Rhys replied, proudly holding the gun out for her to get a good look at it. “Well I think I won.”

“Dammit.” Fiona scowled. “This is totally not fair, you get cool guns and we accidentally start up an old rusty factory.”

“That's not just any cool gun... That's a Hyperion Rogue!” Sasha's face lit up as she identified the gun. “The company may have been evil, but damn did they know how to make some kick-ass guns.” Sasha started to reach out for the gun, but then caught herself and backed off. “Oh, but... We did have a bet didn't we? And you won, fair and square... It's yours, Rhys.”

 

Rhys frowned while sizing up the gun. His feelings were starting to quickly take over. “Actually...” He handed the gun to her. “I'm not really the type to use guns, stun batons are more up my alley. I just wanted to prove that I could find something before you, that's all.”

Sasha smiled as she happily took the gun from Rhys and looked it over. “Wow, really? Are you sure?” She looked back at Rhys.

“Yeah, it's all yours.” He smiled.

“Thanks...” Sasha replied, and then quickly leaned in to give Rhys a kiss on the cheek. “You're so nice sometimes...”

“I-I...” Rhys blushed hard, putting a hand over his cheek where he was kissed. “I...”

Sasha chuckled at the state she had just put Rhys in, and then went back to checking out her new gun, trying to figure out how it worked exactly.

“I don't care if I have a crush on any of you or not, I am not giving this gun up, unlike Rhys.” Rhys stated, calling Rhys out and mocking him somewhat.

“Eh, I don't need one anyway.” Fiona said, showing off her handy sleeve pistol. “This thing's gotten me through a lot, its pretty good, and not as big and bulky either.”

“C-Can we put our focus back on the main issue at hand?” Rhys asked, slowly coming back to reality. “Like the fact the robots are moving again.”

“Oh yeah, where do you think they are going to, anyway?” Fiona questioned, watching as the assembly line above fed into another part of the facility.

“Should we maybe go found out?” Sasha suggested. “As Vaughn said, we need to shut it down.”

“Yeah, we do. C'mon.” Vaughn took the lead. “I'm sure there's more doors around the back walls or something that lead out to the rest of the factory.”

 

And more doors there was, they opened them and it lead into even more complex hallways and room that spanned across the full length of the facility. These halls were even more run down and in even worse condition than the ones near the main entrance. There was this odd rock like substances that seemed to grow out of the old cracks in the walls and some objects. They were oozing with some kind of green fluid.

 

“Eeych.” Sasha gagged slightly. “What are these gross looking things?”

“I... don't know.” Rhys replied, trying to scan the objects with his Echo Eye but returning no information due to the broken state of the program. He wondered if Jack wasn't blinked out would he be able to tell Rhys what these things were instead.

“Whatever it is, it's literally everywhere. Even on the ceilings.” Vaughn pointed out as he gazed upwards at the growths. Some of the lights weren't working because these growths had found a home within them.

“I've never seen anything like this before...” Fiona stated. “I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this.”

There was an odd sound that echoed through the hallway. The group all stopped moving, looking at each other seeing if one of them was the source of the noise.

“What was that?” Sasha asked looking around.

“It wasn't any of us.” Vaughn stated.

Next, there was a distinct squishing sound from behind them and then a blood curdling shriek. They turned around and watched in horror as a four legged, bio-rock creature popped out of one of the growths, covered in filth and slime.

“What is that!?” Fiona screamed, backing up behind Rhys.

“I-I don't know but don't try to aim me at it!” Rhys exclaimed, trying to push Fiona in front of himself.

The monster hissed and made a jump towards them. They both flinched as there was a loud gunshot next to them and the monster blew up in a pile of ooze. “God you two are such babies sometimes.” They looked to the side and watched as Sasha readjusted her gun. “Rule number one of Pandora, and apparently Elpis. If it screams and jumps at you, don't question it, just shoot it!”

“T-thanks, Sash...” Fiona said, distancing herself from Rhys now.

“Yeah, thanks, but its.... Its not like we were scared of it or anything.” Rhys defended himself, fixing up his suit and standing straighter again. “We were just curious about it, that's all.”

“I have a feeling you'll have plenty of chances to find out what it was.” Vaughn said, looking behind the group. All of the other growths they passed started to pulsate, and slowly burst open, dropping more of the hideous creatures into the room.

“All in favour of quickly getting out here?” Rhys spoke up.

The rest of the group all raised their hands.

“Right... No body make any sudden moves then... Just... On the count of three-” Rhys suddenly turned without warning and started to dash down the hallway. “RUN!”

The group took off and followed after Rhys, running away from whatever these new creatures were. Sasha and Vaughn kept their path clear as they ran, taking a few pot shots at stray monsters with their new weapons. They struggled to keep the monsters off the group's heels.

 

“This is probably one of the grossest things I've ever seen.” Fiona said, following right behind Rhys. “Do you even know where we're going, cause the growths seem to be more and more dense.”

“Its a factory built for robots, is it that hard to get lost?” Rhys called back to her. “We just need to find a way to shut down the assembly line, and then we can get out of here before we end some some weird alien bug's lunch.”

“I don't think this is going to be as easy as it sounds, Rhys.” Fiona said, coming to a stop suddenly just as quickly as Rhys did. The pair stood, speechless, staring back up at a large egg cluster.

“What... Is that.” Rhys said, looking upwards at it, trying not to instantly retch at the stench and sight of the ooze that dripped down. The rest of the group caught up behind them as well.

“Uh, big problem.” Vaughn said. “More of them are coming in a huge swarm, and they aren't that far behind us.”

“Yeah, so why are we not running away?” Sasha questioned.

“I mean, as much as I'd like to move on and not end up dead, we can't exactly do that.” Rhys motioned to the large obstruction in the door.

“Oh you've got to be kidding me...” Sasha sighed.

“Guys!” Vaughn caught their attention and pointed back down the hallway from where they came. “ They're coming!”

“We have no choice but to stand our ground and fight!” Fiona stated taking out her gun.

“That's easy for you three to say.” Rhys commented while he took out his stun baton and turned it on. “You all have long ranged weapons...”

The creatures started coming out of the walls now too, as well as filling in from down the hallway. They all closed in on the group, surrounding them and hissing aggressively, waiting for a moment to strike.

“I'm not waiting any longer!” Sasha said and suddenly took a shot, killing the first of many. “If we're going to die I want it to be quick instead of waiting for them to attack first!”

The creatures all stopped hissing for a moment and looked at the splatter spot where their fallen alley once stood. They looked back at Sasha and then hissed even louder, making the choice to move in on the group.

“I really don't think you should of done that!” Vaughn exclaimed, starting to shoot and fend off the monsters now too. “You just pissed them off!”

“Well they were going to eat us anyway!” Sasha replied. “Might as well get this done and over with!”

“Watch out!” Fiona said, and suddenly pushed past the pair, aiming her gun at the ground and shooting a few times.

“What are you doing Fi, you're mis-” Sasha watched in amazement as the area Fiona shot at suddenly started to turn green and fizz up. The creatures walked into the puddles and started to scream in agony as they slowly started to melt. Sasha looked back at Fiona.

“Corrosive bullets.” Fiona explained as she blew the smoke away from the tip of her pistol.

 

“They're on the ceiling!” Rhys exclaimed, Jumping as one dropped down next to him. The group watched as the creatures quickly became wise to Fiona's trap and started crawling up the walls and across the ceiling to get at them.

“Well then kill them!” Sasha said, aiming and shooting more down, Vaughn following suit.

“I'm trying!” Rhys shot back, making a swing at the one that dropped next to him, shocking it with his baton, which was enough to kill it due to the electricity verses body mass ratio. “Again, I don't have a gun!”

The group made small progress in culling the swarm that was all around them. More kept coming from the eggs that were littered everywhere.

“Augh, they're endless!” Fiona cried, shooting more quickly as twice as much came at her. She tried mixing fire and corrosion, but nothing seemed to be working.

“Try shooting the nests!” Sasha said as she did so, causing it to instantly explode with more ooze.

“God this is so gross...” Rhys and Fiona said in unison, side eyeing each other immediately afterwards.

“Would you two rather be grossed out or dead?” Vaughn questioned them. “Suck it up and fight!”

The fighting only lasted another few minutes before it finally started to die down. All the the creatures started to retreat from the area, which confused the group, but they sighed in relief and let their guard down regardless.

“Man, that was tough.” Sasha said, reloading her gun.

“Yeah, wonder what made them retreat all of a sudden?” Rhys questioned. “Maybe they realized they were no match for us and just decided to give up?”

 

The place started to rumble slightly around them. They looked at Vaughn who had the device for tracking quakes.

“Is this another quake?” Fiona asked him.

“Nothing is showing up on the radar...” Vaughn replied, putting the device away.

“Uh... Guys?” Sasha said, looking up at the large egg nest that was blocking the way. “Look up.”

They all turned around and looked up to see that the egg was moving now and shaking the whole area due to the massive size of it. There was a few odd sounds, lots of gross squishing noises, and the faint cries of the creatures from down the hall before the egg suddenly busted open, spraying it's contents everywhere. Within it, a very, very large version of the bug creatures emerged. It growled lowly at them, gazing down at the group from it's location on the wall. It then screamed at them, enough to make them flinch and cover their ears. It was dripping with ooze, and looked very hungry.

“Holy shit...” Rhys stumbled backwards as he looked up at the large creature.

“M-maybe if we don't move, it won't notice us?” Fiona suggested.

“It's not a goddamn T-Rex, Fi.” Sasha told her.

“My suggestion would be to run.” LB Finally Spoke up.

“That, or get a really big fly swatter!” Gortys added, optimistic as always.

“This is it. This is how we die.” Vaughn said, aiming his gun at the monster. “My best guess is this is uh... This is the queen, and all the little ones ran away because we woke her up, and she seems very... upset.”

The mother looked up and sniffed the air, then looked out at the area and spotted all the dead corpses of her kin. The queen looked back at the group again, it targeted Rhys who was closet, and shrieked again, before lunging off the wall, landing on the other side of them and shaking the ground due to the force of her impact. She continued screaming. She was angry, but most importantly, the group looked like a lovely snack.

 

“Are you guys ready for the boss battle?” Sasha asked. “Because here it is.”

Give it all you've got.” Fiona stated as she stood next to Sasha, aiming her gun at the creature. “You guys ready?”

“Ready.” Vaughn replied, cocking his gun and looked up at the monster.

“Ready to die...” Rhys mumbled and flicked his wrist, turning up the voltage on his baton.

Almost instantly the queen made a swing at them, only to end up recoiling as the other started to shoot at it. They instantly sprung into action, LB even headed to charge the creature, and knock it over by taking out one of it's legs. Rhys could only watch as the group did their thing, not really seeing an opening to rush in with nothing but a stupid stun baton. Gortys was also sitting out, watching the action with him.

“We should help them...” Gortys said, looking back at Rhys. “I wish I had thought to bring my upgrades, I could easily squash that bug like... well like a bug! With you helping me of course.”

“Yeah, that would be really easy with your upgrades.” Rhys said, unable to admit he was scared. He was always scared. He was scared when they first took on the warrior, and he was scared when he first started to take down Helios. Even that giant Skag he had to deal with, he was afraid of. It was only pure luck each time for him to have surivived all of those fights. Watching the others act with their natural skill, attacking the queen without any problems.... It made him feel really useless. He was completely useless, too afraid to even get close to the thing to make any effort to help out with his short ranged baton, afraid that he'd be the one squashed instead.

“Waugh!” Fiona was tossed against the wall next to Rhys, she hit it pretty hard too.  
“Fi-” Rhys was quickly at her side. “Are you okay-”

“Look out!” Fiona pushed Rhys away and rolled, the queen kicking the wall where she was and driving a leg right though it. She had gotten herself stuck, but not for long.

“She's stuck!” Sasha pointed out. “Go for it!” Vaughn and herself were already flanking the creature, shooting it rapidly, although it didn't seem to be doing very much damage. The creature was just hissing and getting more angry.

“This isn't working!” Fiona called out as she watched the creature struggle to get itself free of the wall. “We need to think of another approach!”

The creature eventually broke free, taking the whole wall down in the process. The collapse caused a bunch of dust to stir up, making it extremely hard to see what was going on. Sasha almost got hit but LB was quick to act, jumping in front of her and taking the hit, skidding harshly across the floor.

“Loader Bot!” Gortys exclaimed. “Rhys we have to do something!” She looked back up at Rhys, worried.

“I know! I know, I just... I don't know what..” Rhys started to reply.

“O-oh what the hell is g-going on here!?” A familiar voice was back in Rhys's head. “One minute I-I'm watching you k-k-kick a midget's ass, the n-next I'm tossed into the m-middle of you almost dying t-t-to a Tork Queen!”

“Jack!” Rhys called out to the AI that suddenly appearned. “Jack I need your help!”

“W-well no shit, kiddo. You g-guys will ne-never kill it at this r-rate.” Jack responded to him. “And o-on top of that, y-you're stan-standing here with nothing but a-a-a stun baton, looking l-like a goddamn i-idiot. Seriously, How- How stupid can you get?”

“Can we maybe talk about how much of an idiot I am later?” Rhys questioned. “Tell me how to kill it!”

“Right, so...” Jack took a minute. “I-If I remember co-correctly, you want to-to break it's legs first.”

“They've been shooting at every part of it, how do you expect us to break it's legs when it's so huge?” Rhys asked.

“S-see those boils around i-its leg joins?” Jack pointed out the area on the Tork. “Those are f-filled with join fluids. Pop em and the monster w-will be come paralyzed.”

“Got it!” Rhys stood up and called out to the group, who were still trying to fend off the Tork. “Guys! Shoot for it's leg sacs! Trust me on this one!”

“Well, we got nothing else to lose.” Sasha said and changed her position, sliding under the Tork and aiming at the sacs, shooting them on her way.

Fluid sprayed open and the queen shrieked loudly with cries of pain. It was struggling to stand up straight.

“It's working!” Sasha called back to Rhys. “Vaughn, get the other two!”

“On it!” Vaughn replied and followed Sasha's moves, tricking the Tork and getting behind it, shooting the sacs and causing them to drain.

The queen started to cry out, with an assortment of pained screams and whimpers. It collapsed onto the ground, unable to stand up anymore. It resorted to it's last defenses, spitting acid out at the group.

“Whoa!” Vaughn and Sasha split up as a large amount of acid was tossed their way, burning through the metal walls and leaving a large bubbling pit of goo.

“Now it's your turn!” Jack urged Rhys. “Make some use of t-that baton of yours! Set it to-to it's max settings and run head first a-at that son of a bitch!”

“W-where should I stab it?” Rhys questioned, turning his baton up all the way and getting a little afraid himself with the amount of voltage that was coming out of it.

“Aim for the mouth, r-r-right under the tongue!” Jack instructed him. “Time it right to a-avoid the acid, the last t-thing we wa-want is that pretty little face of y-yours melting clean off.”

“R-right... Okay... Okay I got this... I got this...” Rhys stood and faced the Tork Queen, watching as she frantically flopped around on the floor and struggled to get her legs to move again.

“GO!” Jack yelled at him, causing Rhys to flinch. Rhys started screaming now too and just went for it, running towards the monster, baton held high.

 

Rhys continued to scream and kept telling himself he was going to die, keeping thinking on the fact if it was a good idea to come to Elpis in the first place. He wondered if he would have been better off just staying in the dark and waiting for the moon to explode on its own time, it would of been a better death then melting to death due to having deadly acid spit on him by some sort of angry giant moon bug.

Rhys's friends stop fighting the Tork as they heard him screaming and watched him run head first into the battle. Without missing a beat, Rhys quickly climbed up on the Tork's broken legs, using it to gain higher ground and reach for the mouth. He lunged forward and stuck his baton deep under it's tongue. He became weary of the acid that started to leak out, but it didn't spit up at him. It couldn't, not now.

It started to struggle, but Rhys just kept determined and shoved the baton in deeper, making sure to keep it maximum damage. Sparks started to fly out in every direction as the electricity flowed through the Tork's body. It tried to let out one final scream but couldn't. The acid was building up in it's glands, it was becoming too much for it to handle.

 

_Boosh._

 

The Tork's head exploded due to the backlog of acid. The corpse collapsed against the ground, with Rhys stumbling off of it. He was now covered in Tork guts and ooze. He scowled, trying to wipe it off the best he could. No matter what though, that was going to leave a permanent stain, and ruin a perfectly good suit.

 

“Oh, gross...” He complained, shaking off what excess goop that he could. The others simply watched him, shocked by what they just witnessed to say the least. “What?” He looked back at them.

“Rhys... That was amazing!” Sasha exclaimed, smiling at him now. “Gross, but amazing.”

“How did you know where to hit it?” Fiona asked him as she walked up and handed him a handkerchief from her pocket so that he could at least wipe off his hands and face.

“Oh it was just a... Well educated guess.” Rhys replied, and then looked for Jack.

“I gotta say, I'm impressed.” Jack said walking back up to Rhys and laying a hand on his shoulder. “You did better than I expected. Kinda expected that thing was going to eat you, to be honest.... But nope, you did good... I just might still be able to make a hero out of you yet.”

“Wow... Thanks.” Rhys replied, smiling slightly at Jack.

“Also you're really gross now, full of Tork crap. Yucky....” Jack pulled back and wiped his hand off in his jeans, even though nothing actually got on his hands because he couldn't physically touch Rhys anyway.

“Yeah...” Rhys walked past Jack and stood in front of the rest of the group. “Is everyone okay?”

“We are now, thanks to you.” Vaughn said.

“Rhys! You were so cool!” Gortys spoke up. “No wonder you were able to survive so long back on Pandora, your looks really do deceive you!”

“Ah... Thanks?” Gortys could be a bit annoying sometimes without doing so intentionally. “Well anyway, the big nest is gone and so is the queen, which means we should be able to push on and continue looking for a way to turn this whole factory off.”

“You're going to do _what_ now?” Jack looked at Rhys, asking him to bring him up to speed. “What happened, why is the goddamn factory turned back on?”

Rhys just shrugged, unable to directly answer Jack in front of everyone, but he did find a work around. “Yeah, gotta go find a way to clean up the mess that you two started.” He motioned with his eyes towards Fiona and Sasha, hoping that Jack would catch on.

“Yeah... Sorry about that by the way.” Fiona apologized.

“Oh my god, you're all a bunch of Idiots.” Jack face palmed.

 

“Let's go.” Rhys said and took the lead, heading deeper into the factor with the rest of them following behind him.

“So what do we do on the off chance we can't turn it off?” Sasha asked.

“Well then, you have a big problem.” Jack said in response, unable to be heard by her.

“We would have a major problem.” Rhys spoke for him.

“The robots would just keep building until there's nothing left to build from. But there's A LOT of material that was left behind, so running out isn't going to be a problem until a full 300 robot armies later.” Jack explained, with Rhys translating for him.

“How do you know about all of this?” Fiona questioned Rhys.

“I worked for Hyperion before, I thought we established this.” Rhys replied, trying not to let it slip as to what was actually going on.

“I worked for Hyperion too, bro.” Vaughn spoke up. “And I didn't have access to that kind of information, and to my knowledge, you should of had any access to that kind of stuff either... Unless you went snooping?”

“Maybe I went snooping.” Rhys went along with the idea. “I mean, I was like, obsessed with Jack before the incident, so I did a lot of research into his background and what he did. The man had his fingers in a lot of pots.”

“Yeah, y'know what? A year later and the amount of information you still know about me, is still, very much creepy.” Jack stated. “You kinda remind me of this old Hyperion scientist I had working for me, Nakuyama I think his name was. Was completely obsessed with me.”

“Well, okay. I guess that does make some sense, I mean I wouldn't put it past you.” Vaughn took the bait, with Rhys ignoring Jack's comments. “Hey look, there's a room up ahead.

“Storage.” Jack said, prompting Rhys to start repeating him again. “That's where all the finished robots are held.”

“So that's the end of the assembly line then.” Sasha concluded. “Are we going to open that and be faced with a bunch of killer robots?”

“Probably.” Rhys didn't need Jack to tell him that. “I mean, it's old Hyperion, they were probably programmed to kill anything that moved.”

“Oh c'mon, we were not _that_ bad!” Jack protested. “We did have _some_ standards.”

 

They all stopped at the new pair of large rusted doors. They looked at Rhys since he was the leader of this expedition and seemed to know everything about this place.

“Well, go on.” Sasha encouraged him while pushing him ahead slightly and directing him towards the access panel on the door.

“Yes, let me just...” Rhys looked at the panel, then back to Jack.

“Ugh, do I have to everything!?” Jack complained with an eye roll. “776458.”

Rhys put the code into the panel and the doors opened slowly, complete with all the other drawbacks the other doors had when they opened. He stepped back as the group braced themselves for what they might find waiting for them on the other side of the doors. The light from the hall shone into the room and in the dark they could see the assembly line tossing bots onto the ground in piles and droves. The bots looked worse than what they originally did on the assembly line. Something was wrong, something was broken. The flood lights came on into the area once they stepped food inside, and to their horror they discovered the problem. The bots were being put together wrong. Some were falling apart due to the rust, others had three arms, some were two bots in one... It was absolutely horrifying.

“Oh, so that's why we shut this place down.” Jack said, looking the area over. “Man, poor saps, it must be horrible when even your sole purpose for existing is fucked over.”

“I think I am going to be sick.” LB stated, starting to turn around and head back out towards the entrance. “We will be waiting at the front doors, friends.” He pulled Gortys along with him.

“Well, they lasted longer than expected.” Rhys said, stepping further into the room, being very weary of the deactivated robots around him.

“Its... Kinda quiet.” Sasha stated. “Aside from the factory line dropping the scraps into a pile over there, I mean.”

“The robots aren't activated yet.” Vaughn observed as he knelt down to look at one of the robot corpses. “It is kinda spooky.”

“Imagine seeing a bunch of dead humans like this? I'd be freaked out too.” Fiona replied, stepping over a few loose robot parts. “I don't exactly blame the other two for leaving so quickly. Do you think robots get nightmares?”

“Not normally, no. But sentient ones like like LB and Gortys may have some sort of negative response to seeing something like this.” Vaughn acknowledged.

“Oh c'mon, they're robots! Who cares about what they can and can't feel?” Jack laughed at Vaughn for thinking that LB and Gortys were actually distinct indivisuals.

 

“Shut up.” Rhys sneered at Jack, he hated hearing insults like that being tossed at his friends.

“What?” Vaughn looked at him with a confused look, wondering what he had did to warrant being told to shut up.

“I mean... What's up!” Rhys covered his ass again. “What's up with all these bots anyway? What's causing them to be built this way?”

“Probably a mess up somewhere on the line.” Sasha suggested it. “Anyway, how do we turn this thing off?”

“Uh...” Rhys had a look around, scanning the room. There was some equipment against the walls, mostly fork lifts and other useful machines like that. There was a set of stairs to the left that lead up to a cat walk, which lead into a larger observation room overhead. He looked back at Jack.

“Yeah, probably.” Jack shrugged.

“Follow me.” Rhys said and lead them up the stairs to the observation room. The climb up was a bit questionable due to the rusted state of everything, the catwalk creaking uncomfortably under their feet as they crossed it, but they made it across without any major accidents happening. What was more unsettling was the aerial view of all the robot corpses below.

Inside the observation room there was a large computer terminal, that thankfully still had some power. Rhys studied it and poked around with some files and commands on it, finding out this terminal was connected to the main power gird of the factory. “This it it.” He said as he started to get to work, pushing buttons an going through options on the computers. “This computer should be able to shut everything down.”

“Hurry up Rhys, the pile is growing.” Vaughn said, looking out over the railing of the catwalk. “The last thing I want to do is be buried alive by robots.”

“I'm trying...” Rhys said and then pulled back with a loud cuss as the system suddenly beeped loudly and locked him out. “God dammit.”

“Why don't you let me take a crack at it?” Jack requested.

“What? No, I am not letting you gain access to anything in my body.” Rhys frowned at him. “I don't trust you.”

“I'm just restricted to the Echo Eye, so you have nothing to worry about there, aside from your eye maybe twitching and making you look creepy.” Jack replied. “Just give me remote access to the system and I'll see if I can get you past the security and find the shut down commands.”

“I...” Rhys hesitated, glacing out the window and seeing the large pile of robots continuing to get bigger and bigger. He finally caved and granted Jack remote access. “I swear to god if you-”

Rhys flinched as he suddenly lost control of the Echo Eye's programming. It was twitching out of control and he had to turn away from his friends while trying not to freak out too much about what Jack was doing.

“Hey... Relax... Just gotta... Get used to this thing again.” Jack said, sitting back and summoning a keyboard up in front of him. “Take your hand down.”

“I forgot how weird this felt...” Rhys mumbled and took his hand down, looking at the computer screen now.

“Alright, give me a minute while I access the console.” Jack started rapidly typing coding and commands into his keyboard, causing effects to happen on screen. “Just keep eye contact with it, and brace yourself.”

Rhys flinched again as there was the sudden feeling of some sort of force that came over him. He's gotten this same feeling before in the past, but never really liked it when it happened. He was connected to something remotely now. A bunch of boxes started popping up in his view and they all reacted to the computer terminal. Within a few minutes Jack had managed to bypass the security system and was working on looking for the off switch for the factory.

 

“You work fast...” Rhys noted, trying to relax a bit now and study Jack's inputs, so that when needed, Rhys could pull off more complicated things himself in the future.

“Course I do.” Jack said, not looking away from his work. “What part of 'the best engineer that Hyperion had' did you miss in your little research sprees about me?” He chuckled. “And on top of that, I am a computer program myself in this state, so it's almost like I'm dissecting one of my own kind. Kinda fun, in a sick twisted sort of way.”

“And now it just got weird.” Rhys stated and shifted slightly. “And, just to make sure, since you're so good at this, you're sure you have access to nothing else?”

“Well...” Jack raised his arm that corresponded to Rhys's right arm. Rhys did not react. “Nope, nothing else.”

“Oh thank god.” Rhys let out a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, I know. It sucks. I can't kill you.” He laughed slightly. “ _I_ can't.”

“No, you can't.” Rhys confirmed. “And you never will.”

“Oh, never say never, Rhysie.” Jack's tone became slightly more sinister. “I can always have others do it for me.”

“...Jack.” Rhys stiffened at the comment. “What are you plotting-”

“Done.” Jack said and his keyboard dissipated. The computer made a satisfying beep sound.

“Wha-”

“I told you not to worry.” Jack said turning to Rhys with a smile. “You can totally trust me.”

“Huh... Yeah I guess so.” Rhys looked out the window and watched as the assembly line shut down.

 

“Hey, did it work?” Fiona asked and walked up to Rhys. “Did you do it.”

“Yeah! It should be off now, which means that we can finally leave.” He addressed the whole group.

“Great! I can't wait to get out of here. I suspect another quake is gonna hit soon too.” Vaughn said and started to walk back out the way they came in.

As they were crossing the catwalk, the lights suddenly shut off, leaving them in the dark.

“Uh, Rhys?” Sasha looked over at him for an explaination.

“Oh.” Rhys turned his flashlight on. “Sorry, I guess by shutting everything down I killed the generator for the lights too.”

“Oh great...” Fiona sighed. “Head to the front Rhys.” She said, and Rhys did, shining his light ahead as they all walked.

“Careful on the stairs, guys.” Rhys said, walking down first then shining his light back up for the others to see where they were stepping. “Hey, were the robots always this condensed in this area?” Rhys asked, looking around at the shadowy shapes in the darkness that surrounded them.

“I...I don't know.” Vaughn said, looking at the robots, noting as well they were kind of out of place. “Maybe more piled up due to the assembly line while we were up there?”

Jack suddenly chuckled. “Wait for it.”

“...Wait for what?” Rhys side eyed Jack. “...You have something to do with this, don't you!”

“Maybe.” Jack smirked, and then instantly the lights came back on, except it wasn't the original flood lights. The more dim emergency lights had kicked in instead, still making it very hard to see exactly what was around them. There was a red glow to everything now, due to the lights.

“What's going on?” Fiona looked at Rhys. “What did you do?”

“I didn't do anything! C'mon guys, lets just quickly get out of here and back to the other two.... I have a feeling something bad will happen if we stick around for too long.” Rhys shone his light ahead of him, and started running for the door.

“Aw, where are you going in such a hurry, Rhysie? The fun was just getting started!” Jack laughed as the doors leading back into the Tork infested hallways slammed shut in front of him, preventing Rhys and the rest of the group from leaving.

Rhys easily caught on to what was happening. He gritted his teeth and turned around to check on the others, who were clearly scared now.

“W-what's going? Why did the doors close?” Sasha asked, looking back at Rhys. “Rhys, what's happening?”

 

There was the loud sound of scraping metal and a heavy amount of clunks and thumps. The whirring of small computers and soft beeps started to grow in numbers as they echoed off the walls, filling the once quiet room with noise. They all turned around to look back at the storage room, facing the source of the noise. The group froze with fear as hundreds of red circle lights started to pop up and fill the dark room. The lights stared at the group as they started to shift and move. It was the robots, they were all activating and turning on.

“Intruders detected.” One robot spoke up. “Scanning them, devising attacking plan. Accessing protocol. Activated.”

“Kill.”

“Kill...”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

“Kill.”

“Destroy.”

“Ice cream.”

“Death.”

“Kill...”  
“Eliminate.”

“Kill.”

“KILL.”

The Robots erupted with an assortment of sounds and similar phrases, and targeted the group. Sounds of weapons being cocked soon followed, along with the heavy metal shuffling as the robots started to move in. There was an assortment of beeps and clunks as robots toppled over, tripping over each other and struggled to function in their broken states.

“R-Rhys!” Fiona addressed him. “Are you trying to kills us!?”

“I-It's not my fault!” Rhys explained. “But... I know who is to blame.”

“AHAHA!” Jack laughed out loud, floating up higher to get a good view of the carnage that was about to take place. “You were so stupid Rhys, just walked right into my trap! I can't kill you, but these goddamn robots can!”

“Goddammit, I trusted you!” Rhys called out, looking up at Jack.

“Yeah, and how well did that work out for you? Sure as hell didn't go well the first time you did it.” Jack stated. “How does it feel to be betrayed and stabbed in the goddamn back, Rhys? Feels good doesn't it? Let it alllll soak in, all that anger, that hatred. Been living like that for YEARS”

“Rhys! What are you screaming at!?” Sasha questioned him.

“You won't get away with this!” Rhys ignored her and continued to scold Jack. “First I'm going to get my friends out of this mess, _alive,_ and then I'm coming for you, Jack you sick son of a bitch! I should of destroyed you!”

Sasha, Fiona, and Vaughn all looked at each other in shock, as if unsure if they just heard what Rhys said correctly.

“Wait a minute, Jack? As in Handsome Jack?” Fiona squinted at Rhys.

“You mean the fucking rogue AI that tried to KILL US the last time?!” Sasha asked.

“How the hell would Jack even be here, Rhys!” Vaughn called out to him.

“Enough with the questions already! Let the bloodshed begin!” Jack smiled wickedly as he made a few hand motions and the robots started to move to his command.

The group screamed and ducked for cover behind the nearby equipment that sat against the walls. They needed to figure a way out of this, and fast.

“Ah, ah, ah. Now hiding isn't fun. It just makes you all a bunch of cowards.” Jack chuckled. “Good thing I'm in control of this place now.” He made another motion with his hand and the machines the group were hiding behind all roared to life, tossing them back out into the middle of the approaching robots.

 

Sasha was the first one tossed out, hitting the ground hard, next was Fiona, then Vaughn, and finally Rhys. They all scrambled to stand up, set up back to back in the middle of the room with a spotlight shining down on them as the robots closed in around them forming a ring.

“We have to fight them, just like with the Torks... It's our only chance to survive.” Vaughn said, looking over his shoulder at the rest of the group.

Sasha took up her gun. “Isn't that always the solution to everything?”

“C'mon guys, what's a few bots to that Tork we took down?” Rhys said, standing strong and holding his pride, not wanting to lose to Jack without giving him a fight first. “If Jack wants a fight, then we'll give him one” He made a swift motion and pulled his baton, putting it up on maximum settings again.

“Alright, lets start fighting then.” Fiona said and loaded up her corrosive bullets, starting to shoot already, this cued in Vaughn and Sasha, who joined the fight now too.

Rhys instantly took off, pushing into the bots with his baton and shorting them out one by one. Normally Rhys wouldn't rush headfirst into a ring of near endless deadly robots like this, but something was different. He felt stronger than he normally was, and because of it, he didn't want to just give up and die here. There was a feeling that started to well up inside of him. It was partly based on anger, partly based on his feelings being hurt. He was in fact, feeling betrayed, just as Jack pointed out. But over all of the emotions, determination dominated them all. This feeling was the exact same rush of emotions he got while single handedly taking down Helios. He was determined not to loose, and he determined to put an end to Jack once and for all. He wanted to right his wrongs, and now was his chance to do so. It didn't matter to Rhys how many bots came at him, it didn't matter how man he had to cut through. All that mattered right now was reaching those doors, opening them, and getting his friends out alive.

“Oh, well now this just got interesting.” Jack chuckled and leaned back in the air, watching the show play out below him. He was amused by their attempts to fight back. “I love it when the wanna be heroes actually think they have a chance of winning. Ha, always a classic.”

Despite their up most efforts, the odds were extremely stacked against them. There was too many robots for them to handle, and they wasted most of their ammo on the Tork Queen, leaving them to all run out of bullets at the worst of times. They were now rendered defenceless. They all looked at Rhys who was further ahead, but starting to get over run with so many bots.

“Rhys!” Sasha called out. “We have a problem!”

“I kinda have some of my own problems at the mo-” Rhys was suddenly smacked hard in the head by one of the robots. He stumbled backwards and hit the ground hard. The baton fell out of his grasp, and rolled away under a pile of robots, now out of his reach.

“S-Shit!” Jack exclaimed, forgetting that he was still station in Rhys's head, meaning any tough knocks Rhys took could damage Jack extremely, causing him to glitch out. He fought with himself to keep stable. “I-I can't b-b-believe I'm sa-saying this, but... Win! D-d-don't let them k-kill you! I d-d-didn't think thi-this through!”

Rhys's friends were instantly by his side to help him up to his feet again. By the time this happened though, they were literally enclosed by the robot, there was barely even any breathing room.

 

“F-fucking...” Jack floated back up to the terminal in the observation room. “I-I c-can't... I'm glitching t-t-too much to... G-god dammit! S-stop! D-Do-don't k-kill them!”

The robots ignored jack and started to charge up their weapons.

“This is it, _this_ is actually how we die...” Rhys said, looking back at his friends. “I...I'm sorry guys, this is all my fault...”

“Hey, not it's not. Crazy robots waking up just happen sometimes.” Fiona looked at him with a soft smile. “You were just trying to do what was right and help us out by shutting the factory down. You didn't intend for this to happen.”

“No you don't understand! It really is my fault!” Rhys exclaimed looking back at her. “I made a mistake. I... I...”

“Save it.” Fiona told him, and pointed to the robot that had the large canon pointed at them.

“Initiating elimination in five... Four...”

Rhys stared blankly at the end of the of the canon's barrel. He thought on his life, and everything that had happened up to this point. He thought on the fact that this was his fault, and it was all thanks to Jack... and now Jack would win... _Jack would win..._

“Three.”

“No.” Rhys spoke up, catching everyone's attention. “No, I am not... I _can't_ let it go like this! I will NOT let that son of a bitch win, not after all I've had to go through! I'm sick of being used like this, I'm sick of always causing bad things to happen. I was finally fixing all of that, I finally had my own life, and then I made the mistake of letting...”

“Two.”

“ _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”_

 

Rhys rushed towards the robot with the canon, punching it square in the optic with his left hand. There was a spark of blue light as the area around the impact exploded with a huge blast wave of energy. The robot was pushed back through the crowd of others, destroying them as it flew and hit the back wall. It sat for a moment before exploding, taking out more robots.

“What the fu-” Jack exclaimed upon having witnessing what just took place.

The rest of Rhys's friends look at him in awe, they were also stunned by what just happened, more than they were when he managed to slay the Tork Queen. The dust that was kicked up died down, and then more robots stepped up to face off with the group. Rhys responded once again and lifted the robots into the air without touching them, forming them into a ball and then tossing them into a pile of other robots, causing them to explode as well.

Rhys huffed and fixed his posture, looking over the after mass of the damage he just did. It took Rhys a moment but he suddenly realized that yes, he did this. He felt a strange power flowing through him and he lifted his left hand up, examining it. He rolled his sleeve up to see that his birthmarks were glowing, but already starting to quickly fade back to normal.

“Rhys...” Sasha reached out to him. “How did you...”

“You've got to be f-fucking kidding me, k-kiddo!” Jack came back down to stand in front of Rhys. “You, of a-all fucking people... w-w-why is it YOU.”

“Jack!” Rhys addressed him to the concern of his friends who were watching him speak to no one. “This whole mess is your fucking fault!” Rhys hissed. “I made the mistake of lending you my trust, and once again you abused it, you goddamn prick! You tried to kill me again! I've had it with you and your goddamn lies!”

“Okay, easy there cupcake.” Jack raised his hands in defence. “You fucked up, everyone does. Nothing to worry about.” Jack smiled, though it was clear he was a bit worried about Rhys's reaction to him. “Listen, why don't you use that new fancy powers of yours to push through these bots and open that door, and then we just forget this every happened?”

“No! This is ending now, Jack! You don't deserve to be alive right now, nor do you deserve my sympathy, you had your chance! I'm done!” Rhys quickly made a go for his own eye.

“No- no wait!” Jack started begging once again. “I'm s-sorry Rhys! I-I'm the one who f-fucked up this time! I should of known better, you did warn me! Please d-don't-!”

“Rhys!” Fiona caught his attention, sparing Jack for now. “The robots are attacking again!”

Rhys glared at Jack, then quickly jumped into action again. He picked up more robots and blew them up, quickly clearing a path to the doorway for his friends, and then holding the ground there while Vaughn worked on opening the door for them.

“Okay hold on, just keep them off me for a few minutes Rhys.” Vaughn called out as he quickly popped the panel and started messing with the wires. “Let's see if I can remember how to properly overload a circuit.”

“The overload code is-”

“Shut the fuck up Jack!” Rhys sneered. “He doesn't need your help, no one needs your fucking help. You've helped quite enough! Vaughn knows what he's doing.”

Jack looked a bit taken back by Rhys's behaviour. He'd never really had someone tell him off like that and not be able to do anything about it. He didn't like it, but given he didn't even see this side of Rhys to this extreme the last time they had it out, he wasn't going to push his luck right now, and did what he was told, keeping his mouth shut.

 

“I got it! I got it!” Vaughn announced as the door slowly opened. Once it was just wide enough for them to squeeze through, they started to leave. “C'mon Rhys, let's go!”

Rhys looked over his shoulder to make sure they had all made it out first, then he made one final push against the bots and ran out of the room. He used his new found powers to pull the doors shut behind him, and seal them off permanently. There was the rapid sound of gun fire and metal scraping and banging against the doors as the robots continued to get at them, but the doors would hold for now.

Rhys let out a heavy sigh and slid down against the door. Now that everyone was safe and they made it out of that, he quickly became very tired.

“What the hell was all of that about!?” Fiona snapped at Rhys, refusing to let him rest even though he just saved them all. “Where did you suddenly get super powers from?”

“Forget the powers, I'm more concerned about who you claim to be talking to!” Sasha butted in and frowned down at him. “Rhys... You're keeping things from us... _again.”_

Rhys sighed again and leaned his head back against the cold metal door, looking back up at the rest of the group. “There's something I think I should tell you all.”

“Well spit it out.” Vaughn said. “You can tell us anything bro, you don't have to keep secrets from us like this.”

Rhys hesitated.

 

_**“...I put Jack back in my head.”** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This Chapter has been revised.**


	14. The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys confesses to his friends about Jack. They want him to get rid of Jack, however, with Jack still influencing him, he refuses, resulting in him running away from his friends for fear they would force him to remove the Echo Eye. After his strange powers kicked in again, putting him miles away from the old factory, he is left alone with Jack to question him. Jack debates a way for Rhys to still keep him around, despite everything he did. In addition to this, Jack answers the question as to what's causing Rhys's strange powers. He suggests that Rhys is a Seer, a male version of Sirens.

“I Put Jack back in my head.”

“You _what_!?” Rhys's friends all exclaimed in unison as they closed in around him.

“I know it sounds bad but-”

“Sounds bad? Rhys did you learn ANYTHING from the last time you tangled with Handsome Jack?” Fiona scolded him.

“You... You idiot! No wonder those robots attacked us!” Sasha growled at Rhys. “I knew you hacked that terminal too quickly, Jack did it for you and in the process, activated the robots in an attempt to kill us, didn't he?”

“Yes, that's exactly what happened, but its my own fault for allowing him acess to the console in the first place.” Rhys admitted. “Pretty much everything here since we arrived hasn't really been me, but rather Jack telling me what to do instead.”

“How long have you been hiding him, Rhys?” Sasha questioned him. “Is ATLAS on it's way to unleashing another Vault Monster on Pandora?”

“No! No not at all!” Rhys replied and then started to stand up. “He hasn't been with me long, I only just put him in back at the core when I got stuck. I didn't plan on bringing him along though, honestly! It was an accident that caused me to have his lens on me again.”

“I thought you claimed to have destroyed that lens, Rhys.” Vaughn gave him a shifty look.

“Forget why he still has it, what in gods name made you think it was a good idea to put him back in your head?” Fiona cut in, looking for answers. “You remember what happened the last time, yet you somehow trusted him more than us, your friends! You weren't going to tell us about this at all, and we still wouldn't know if it wasn't for Jack trying to _kill us_.”

“I know! I know it was stupid, and I regret doing it, I really do! I'm sorry!” Rhys replied. “I just... At the time I had no other option, I thought it would be quick and easy, but I made the mistake of allowing him to talk me into keeping him longer than I needed to.”

“Okay, but why did you keep him in the first place?” Vaughn spoke up again. “You had no need to keep his programming, I thought you dealt with him last time, for good. I guess not, but why?”

“I...I don't know... I guess I figured he may be useful at some point?” Rhys tried to give an explanation.

“How could a program like that ever be useful?” Sasha frowned. “I don't know why you didn't crush that horrible son of a bitch like a bug the minute you had him out of your system! If you did, none of this would of happened!” She sighed heavily and turned away to slam her fist into the nearby wall, letting off some steam.

 

“So... Is Jack still with you right now?” Fiona asked looking around.

“Yep, standing right there.” Rhys made a motion towards Jack, making eye contact with him. “Though I'm impressed he's actually listened to me and manged to keep his mouth shut for this long.”

Jack just looked back at Rhys, keeping his silent composure. He merely adverted his eyes, having no comment to contribute at the moment.

“Well why the hell isn't he removed already?” Sasha complained. “You don't need him, Rhys.”

“Listen, I thought he'd be useful, and he was, for a little bit.” Rhys spoke up. “But I shouldn't of kept him any longer than needed, and now he's no longer useful to me.”

“Right, he's not! So get rid of him, _now._ ” She stepped towards Rhys. “And if you don't, I won't hesitate to do it for you.”

“You don't have to do anything-” Rhys raised his hands in defence. “I'm going to remove him, right now.” Rhys went to reach for his own eye once more.

“Don't-” Jack spoke up and looked back at Rhys.

“Why not!?” Rhys exclaimed and walked up to Jack, his friends onlooking with mild concern. “Why shouldn't I remove you!? Are you forgetting that you literally just tried to KILL US!?”

“Y-yeah... I did, and I... I didn't think it through, okay?” Jack replied. “You dying means that I die too and I-”

“This is all it's about it, isn't it?” Rhys scowled at him. “All your worried about is dying, well news flash, you're already freaking dead!”

“Its n-not the same, Rhys! Not in this s-state! You don't understand what it-”

“Shut up! I'm done with you, Jack! I'm done listening to your lies, I wont let you trick me into anything else!” Rhys snapped, and took hold of his eye, starting to work on getting the lens out.

“Rhys! Rhys please!” Jack was begging once more, it was almost as if it was all he knew how to do at this point. “I'm sorry! I'm really sorry, I am! I'll actually behave this time I promise! Please don't... Please don't do this to me!”

“Save it for someone who cares, Jack.” Rhys pinched the lens between his fingers and started to pull it out.

“Stop!” Jack reached out for Rhys taking him by the shoulders, startling Rhys in the process. “P-Please! I'm serious! I-I-I haven't be-been this s-serious before! Pl-Please don't m-m-make me go back th-there! I-I'll do what ever you say, R-Rhys! Please!... Just... Pl-Please...” He looked desperately back at Rhys. “There's nothing t-there Rhys... no-nothing... The-there's _nothing there_....”

 

Rhys hesitated and looked back at Jack. He could see on his face that there was a genuine fear coming from the AI. He was actually scared, he was actually begging. He was acting actually sorry, if only to save his skin. He questioned the reality of his judgment, and wondered if any truth could really be held to Jack's words. If he were to spare him again, and to lend him his trust for a third time, it would only be abused once more. Jack didn't kill him this time, but he'd just keep trying again and again until he succeeded... That was only if Rhys chose to trust him, that is.

“Rhys, what's wrong?” Sasha addressed him, realizing that he was stalling. “Rhys?”

“Rhys.” Jack continued to plead with him. “Please... I-I can, have, and will continue t-to help y-you. Just... Just don't....”

Rhys looked over at Sasha and then back at Jack. He sighed. “I can't do it.”

“What?” Rhys's friends looked at him with confusion.

“I can't disconnect him.” Rhys said to Jack's relief. “He's scared.”

“Scared? Rhys who cares... He's Jack!” Vaughn spoke up.

“I'll give him something to be scared of-” Sasha started walking up to Rhys.

“Easy, Sash...” Rhys put his hands up to defend himself. “He's harmless in this state, It's just that I made the mistake of giving him access to any form of power...”

“Harmless!? Are you serious!?” Sasha laughed, though it was more shock based than genuine humour. “Rhys, this is Handsome Jack we're talking about here. He's one of the most dangerous men to ever step foot on Pandora, and you're going to tell me he's _harmless_!?”

“She's right, Rhys. You can't trust him.” Vaughn stepped up. “And if you won't get rid of him, we'll do it for you.”

“Just because Jack can't be trusted doesn't mean you guys won't trust me, does it?” Rhys replied. “I came through for you guys back then, and I just came through for you all now.”

“Yes, but he's lying to you and filling your head with shit! You said it yourself!” Fiona exclaimed. “You need to get rid of him, Rhys!”

“Guys! I can handle him! Just trust me on this one!” Rhys started to back away from them, finding himself pinned up against the wall.

“We can't trust you Rhys, even though we want to!” Fiona explained. “What if he takes over your body again, he's done that before!”

“It's not going to happen because-”

“I've had enough of this messing around!” Sasha made a go for Rhys. “I'm getting rid of him!”

“Wait!”

 

Sasha was suddenly picked up and suspended in the air, she was unable to reach Rhys. Vaughn and Fiona looked up at her a bit scared for her safety, they then looked back towards Rhys. Rhys was also surprised, his powers seemed to have acted up again.

“R-Rhys!” Sasha yelled at him, she was too angry to care about anything else. “Put me down!”

Rhys really couldn't explain why he acted like he did next, but he did it anyway. “I..I'm sorry.” He said, before tossing Sasha at Vaughn and Fiona, and then quickly making a break for it down the hallways. “I...I'll meet up with you guys later! I'll... I'll figure out a way to get a grip on this, on all of it, and then... and then prove to you guys that it's all okay!”

“Rhys!” The group called after him, scrambling to get back to their feet so they could track him.

Rhys pushed the doors open ahead of him with his powers as he ran, slamming them shut behind him in an attempt to slow his friends down. He pushed past LB and Gortys in a rush, they tried to stop and question him but were unsuccessful.

“Rhys! What happened back there? We heard loud noises and where are the other-” Gortys spoke up but Rhys ignored her. “Rhys! Rhys, wait! Where are you going!” She tried to follow out the doors after him but LB stopped her.

“Something's not right.” LB commented and looked down at Gortys.

Rhys reached the outside of the factory and just kept on running. He didn't understand why he was running away from everyone, why he was choosing to trust Jack again. He knew that Jack was bad news, but yet here he was sprinting away from his friends to protect him. He was also so surprised at the fact his friends admitted they didn't trust him... Maybe that was it, maybe he was feeling angry... Maybe he was hurt... He didn't really understand it, and there was just so much going on, that the only thing he could think to do was to run, and keep running.

“Whoa, slow down there kiddo, you're gonna run out of Oz.” Jack said, keeping up with Rhys. “What just happened back there? What made you change your mind all of a sudden, don't tell me you actually...”

Rhys finally started to slow down before coming to a complete stop. He was far away from the factory now, and barely broke a sweat. The new powers were defiantly to blame for this one. He found himself now alone, and wandering the sand wastes of Elpis.

“I...I don't know what happened.” Rhys huffed as he finally stopped to speak with Jack. “I just... They didn't trust me, and were starting to gang up on me, and I...I thought they were my friends but-...”

“Yeah, you thought... Until they betrayed you.” Jack folded his arms and smirked at Rhys. “Y'know that's exactly what happened to me, they betrayed me, simply because they didn't trust me.”

“Well... At least they didn't try to kill me.” Rhys said. “I'm sure they meant well, they just wanted you out of my head. But I just...”

“Just what?”

“I don't know!” Rhys tossed his hands up. “I've been weird ever since that incident with the Moon Rocks in the core, I don't know what's going on any more!” He sighed, looking back towards the way he came. “Maybe I should head back? I mean, we were in the middle of a mission, after all.”

“Go back? And then what? Listen to them and have me disconnected!?” Jack questioned as Rhys started to push past him and head back.

“I should have done that in the first place.” Rhys stated. “Why are you so hellbent on staying alive just so you can kill me?”

“I don't want to kill you anymore.” Jack replied. “Killing you means killing myself, and I don't want that to happen.”

“So you really are afraid of dying.” Rhys looked back at him.

“...Afraid is a strong word... Not found of dying, maybe.”

“Then what's your deal, Jack?” Rhys questioned as he stopped walking and stood with a hand placed on his hip.

“I...I don't know. I really don't know.” Jack admitted. “Just like you, I don't really know what I'm doing, or what's going on, but all I know for sure is that I don't want to be disconnected. I don't want to die. I don't want go back there.”

“That sounds like a you only problem.” Rhys scoffed. “I don't have to worry about dying anytime soon.”

“We both have problems, Rhys.” Jack replied. “Listen, you're curious about these new powers of yours, right? I may have some answers but I'll need to stick around if you want to hear them.”

“There's always a catch.” Rhys frowned. “I'm getting real sick of operating by your rules.”

“Well then you be the one lay down the rules!” Jack suggested. “I just...I need some time to sort things out. I realized a moment too late that sending those bots after you was a bad idea, and I learned from that. I did! And I said I'm sorry about it, too!”

“Just a bad idea? You tried to kill me!” Rhys was not letting this one go. “The minute I gave you the slightest amount of freedom you abused it! How can you possibly prove to me that you can be trusted after pulling a stunt like that?”

 

“Give me another chance.”

“You're on like your ninth or tenth chance already, Jack.” Rhys pointed out. “You don't deserve another one.”

“Listen... I'm aware that you and me, we got off on the wrong foot, but...” Jack started to walk around Rhys. “The bad times aside, we certainly had some good times too, right?”

“I don't recall any good times.” Rhys scowled. “Thinking back on it now, the very first time I met you, you yelled at me and tried to choke me only to realize you couldn't.”

“I...I did do that, didn't I?” Jack frowned.

“Yeah, you did.” Rhys continued. “So again, why should I trust you?”

“...You shouldn't.” Jack finally accepted it. “You're completely right, I'm horrible. I don't deserve your sympathy, Rhys.”

Rhys looked surprised now upon hearing Jack admit that. “Are you serious?”

“Oh yeah! I've truly seen the errors of my ways.” Jack continued on. “You're one hundred percent right, I can't be trusted and now I have nothing left to live for. Helios is crashed into the ground, I apparently originally died to some random Vault Hunters, my daughter is dead... No one clearly cares about me anymore, so why would I even want you to keep me around in the first place?”

“When you put it like that...It does sound pretty bad.” Rhys lost his stern tone. “You've learned a few lessons from all of that, yeah?”

“Totally.” Jack responded. “Y'know that thing called losing? It really fucking sucks.”

“...I don't know. I'm still not convinced you're worth my trouble to keep around.” Rhys shifted, still not completely sure if he should be buying this sob story or not.

“Well then, why not consider this?” Jack floated over to Rhys and leaned against him. “You know that I did bad, you however, did good. You own ATLAS now, right? Why don't you keep me around, not for my sake, but for your own personal gain? Picture this, alright? You keep me, you teach me the right ways of life, and suddenly you're famously known as the man who successfully converted Handsome Jack to a good guy.”

“I mean...” Rhys pulled away from Jack. “You'd have to be actually willing to change. Willing to know what's wrong and what's right in order to start becoming a better person.”

“And what better person to teach me all of that than you? You're the real hero who managed to take down the big bad wolf in the first place.” Jack smirked. “What do you say Rhys? I'll swear by this offer, and the minute I step out of line, I won't try to stop you again. You can just... You can just go ahead and yank me right out and step on me if you'd like. I won't protest.”

“It would be rather satisfying to actually make you into someone useful.” Rhys stated. “And it would prove myself to the others as well, prove to them I know what I'm doing, that I have things under control, and that they can trust me.”

“Exactly!” Jack floated back over to Rhys. “So what do you say, do we have a deal?”

“A deal? It's more like a bet, really.” Rhys hesitated to take Jack's hand. “Because I don't think you're actually up to this challenge, that you'd just turn on me again before the days out, and try to kill me or someone else once again.”

“Oh ye of little faith.” Jack laughed and took Rhys's bet. “I bet you that I can, and will stick to this, and prove you wrong. And if I win, I want you to give me something.”

Rhys rolled his eyes. “What do you want, Jack?”

“An apology.” Jack said.

Silence fell over the two.

“That's it?” Rhys blinked. “You don't want something bigger? More useful? Like you're not going to want to take over my body or anything like that? All you want is an apology? More importantly, what should I even be sorry for?”

“Just for... Ah well, y'know... Doubting me and all of that stuff I guess?” Jack shrugged. “I want to hear you say sorry when I win this.”

Rhys shook his head. “Okay, fine.” He then picked back up his stern tone and looked Jack dead in the eye. “But I'm warning you, this _is_ the last chance I'm willing to give you. You step out of line slightly, or even so much as think about doing something horrible, I will remove you without hesitation.”

“Okay... I get it. You're serious this time.” Jack replied. “The law is now set, and I'll abide by it.”

 

Rhys turned to start walking again. “Okay, great.” He sighed. “Now how do I go about convincing the others to let me keep you?”

“I'm sure they'll come around... Eventually.” Jack suggested. “Though, I don't know why you're walking back for, you're miles away from them by now.”

“What?” Rhys looked over his shoulder at Jack.

“Look around you, you're in the middle of no where.” Jack motioned to the empty dust plains.

“How the heck did I manage to get so far away?” Rhys questioned.

“Well y'know your powers that you seemingly can't control yet?” Jack pointed out. “They kicked in back there and you kinda just... Y'know, went for it while running.”

“So you're telling me I have super speed now too?”

“looked like that, yeah.”

“This. Is. AWESOME.” Rhys smiled, but then looked to Jack with more questions. “Okay wait, you said you have some what of an idea about what's going on with me... So let's hear it, what's the source of all these powers?”

“I mean, this is only an idea, and not solid evidence, but...”

“I'll take an idea over nothing, hit me.”

“ _You're a Siren._ ” Jack stated.

Rhys looked back at Jack, he was blank faced as he was trying to process what Jack just told him. “What.”

“Well, not an Siren exactly, but those powers are defiantly similar to one.” Jack leaned back in the air. “And you have no idea what a Siren is, do you?”

“Nope.”

Jack sighed. “Alright so to keep this brief, Sirens are people who are born with these crazy powers, and are linked to Vaults and the Eridians back on Pandora. Only six of them can exist in the universe at any given moment, and to my knowledge there should only be at least two that I know of still alive.”

“And those two would be?” Rhys raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“That psycho chick Lilith, and some random Vault Hunter named Maya.”

Rhys stared back at Jack for a moment in disbelief. “No way, Lilith is a Siren?” He tried to recall everything about the woman from the short interaction they shared back on Pandora, one wouldn't of known upon first impressions.

“Yep. Dangerous with her powers too.” Jack replied.

 

Rhys continued the conversation. “So, what does it take to classify someone as a Siren anyway?”

“Well it's a small checklist of dead give-aways.” Jack started to create the list. “Crazy powers for one, not always the same kind of crazy powers but powers none the less, they have strange markings on a section of their body... And they are usually, if not always, female.”

“Strange markings...?” Rhys stopped for a moment, starting to unbutton his coat and shirt.

“Whoa, what are you doing?” Jack questioned Rhys suddenly deicing to strip in front of him.

“Relax, the pants aren't coming off though I bet you'd be _thrilled_ to see that, huh?” Rhys let out a snide remark, slipping his left shoulder and arm out of his clothing, and turning to face Jack. “Do these count as 'strange markings'?” Rhys gestured to the blue “tattoos” that covered him from his left side collar bone, over his shoulder, and down his abdomen and arm, stopping at his wrist and his waist. They were glowing slightly, assumingly with the Moonstone's energy.

“Well check you out...” Jack stepped closer to examine Rhys's markings. “How long have you had these?”

“Since birth.” Rhys replied. “My parents took me to doctors and had tests and stuff done, no one could explain it and chalked it up to some really weird birthmarks.”

“Interesting... They do match similar to what Sirens have, but of course each one has unique markings.” Jack explained.

“But now there just poses one more problem.” Rhys started to dress himself again. “You said Sirens are all... _Female?_ ”

“...Yeah. They are...” Jack stood and quickly glanced Rhys up and down, before making eye contact again, as if asking something.

Rhys caught on and gave a sour look. “I'm a dude, just... You're just gonna have to trust me on that one. _Please_.”

“Are you sure, I mean technology these days-” Jack started to smirk.

“YES, I'M SURE.” Rhys scowled.

“Well then I suppose there is another option.” Jack put a hand to his chin while thinking on what he was going to say next.

“I'm all ears, anything to confirm my manhood.” Rhys remarked.

Jack looked back at Rhys. “I'm not like, one hundred percent on this information, but while searching information on Sirens, the Vaults, and Eridian culture, I do recall stumbling upon some mentioning of a sort of... counterpart to Sirens.”

“Well let's hear it.”

“You could be a _Seer_.” Jack stated. “Actually now that I think about it, that's probably hitting the nail on the head right there.”

“What's the difference between a Siren and a Seer?” Rhys asked.

“Not much.” Jack continued on. “I mean, Seers are rarer than Sirens, obviously there's the gender things, Seers are predominantly male... But it was stated they used something other than Eridium... Given Pandora's connection to Elpis, I'm willing to fill in the blanks and say that thing was Moonstones.”

Rhys cast his gaze towards the ground, focusing on a nearby rock. “So I'm a Seer.”

“Seems that way.” Jack Shrugged. “Some more fun facts, there can only be six Sirens in existence at any given moment, and to compliment that, only three Seers I do believe.”

“Interesting...”  
  
Rhys's face suddenly lit up as he eyed Jack. “Wait a minute, does this whole Seer thing happen to be a sign? A sign I'm destined for something great?” He started to get a bit excited while gaining a sense of importance.

“Doubt it.” Jack popped Rhys's bubble before it was even done inflating. “Most Sirens, and I guess Seers now too, are just people with freaky powers and all they do is keep that balance about the max number of Sirens in the universe. Like I said, that Maya chick is living her life as a Vault Hunter, last I checked anyway.”

“...Dammit.” Rhys frowned, hiking up his shoulders and shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Oh, and some sick bastards like to hunt Sirens for their powers and appearance.” Jack added on.

“Would said sick bastard be you?” Rhys gave him an accusing glance.

“...I mean, I may have done that, yes, used them for their powers, but I didn't kill them and mount them on a wall, which was what I was actually talking about.”

“The fuck is wrong with people.” Rhys scrunched up his face at the thought of mounting a human like some sort of game animal. “Should I be worried and hide my powers then?”

“Nah. I wouldn't worry too much. Idiots like that usually find some way to get themselves killed.” Jack waved away Rhys's worries. “Besides, with those powers I'm sure you would be more thank capable of defending yourself should you find yourself getting headhunted.”

“Well that's good to hear.” Rhys nodded in understanding. “So let's recap... Basically I touched a rock, re-awakened powers I've always had, and now I have super powers for free that I can use whenever I want for my own benefit... Sweet.” Rhys spoke up a bit more. “But uh... I gotta ask... How do you have so much information on Sirens? Almost like you had personal experience with one or something. Like I get your current state is a computer program so you probably just have stuff integrated into your code and stuff... but what about things like myths and legends? Which is exactly what this kind of information is dealing with.”

“I _did_ have a few personal experiences with a Siren... That's all you need to know.” Jack replied and started to walk again.

 

“Oh...” Rhys replied, following Jack, off put by not getting a more informed answer from the man. “Anyway, we should head back to the others, yeah? Explain what we just talked about and try to arrange a setup that doesn't involve them pinning me down against my will and taking a screwdriver to my head.”

“We could do that, but as I said before, we're miles away from that factory now.” Jack spoke, looking back over his shoulder at Rhys. “Your best option now is to either spark your powers up again if you know where you're going... If not, you should find a Fast-Travel and use that instead. My best guest is that they are probably headed back to town anyway to look for you, so-”

“What makes you think that? Wouldn't they just go on to the source of the quakes without me?” Rhys asked.

“No. I'm a good observer kid, and despite your little episode I can tell you that your friends wouldn't just abandoned you like that.” Jack said. “I mean they must be really good friends to have no shot you on the spot the minute you announced you put me back in your head.”

“Yeah...” Rhys smiled. “You're not wrong there, they actually are pretty good friends.”

“Right. So, let's go find a Fast-Travel?” Jack suggested.

“Sure, I'm guessing from your eagerness you have some sort of idea where one may be?” Rhys questioned.

“I do.” Jack replied. “We passed by one while you were running a marathon.”

“Well, lead the way.” Rhys made a hand gesture to the terrain ahead of them, following behind Jack. “I'm deciding to trust you, remember?”

“Oh, I know.” Jack chuckled. “I won't forget...”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***This Chapter Has Been Revised***


	15. In The Flesh and Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While trying to find a way back to their friends, Jack leads Rhys to an old Fast Travel unit. It's broken but Jack insists he can fix it, talking Rhys into installing him into the machine. As to be expected, Jack lied once again and Rhys had actually uploaded him into an old Hyperion New-U machine. Jack is now free of Rhys, in a reconstructed body made of flesh and blood and his first motive is to finally kill Rhys. Rhys puts Jack in his place with his Seer powers, nearly killing him before deciding to be the better man. After a discussion and a shuffle, having been betrayed for the last time, Rhys decides to leave Jack alone to his own devices. Jack becomes trapped in a pocket of air as Rhys takes his leave, having no source of oxygen, rendering him unable to leave the area. Jack is not happy about this.

 

“How much further, Jack?” Rhys called out as he trekked through the moon sand behind the AI.

“Not too much further, it should be just up ahead, Rhysie.” Jack replied making strides ahead of Rhys, he was excited to reach their destination.

“You seem excited.” Rhys noted. “What's waiting for us up ahead?”

“Hm?” Jack glanced back over his shoulder. “Oh sorry, nothing special, just a normal Fast Travel, I'm just excited about our little agreement is all.”

“What's there to be excited for?” Rhys questioned him. “You're not forgetting the rules if you mess up already, are you?”

“Of course not! You can trust me!” Jack said. “Look, see? There it is, the Fast Travel! I wasn't leading you on.” Jack pointed up ahead at a small air pocket that contained the familiar machine.

“Huh, I guess that's one point for you then. Looks like you may be really committing to this thing after all.” Rhys smiled back at Jack. He ran on ahead and jumped before he slid down into the small valley the machine and oxygen bubble were located in. He stopped for a moment, sucking in the fresh oxygen.

“I see you're getting use to the moon.” Jack commented as he joined Rhys near the machine.

“It is kinda fun running around in low gravity.” Rhys admitted, looking around the area they were in. “I should come here for a vacation every so often, y'know, when it's not at risk of blowing up, that is.”

“Elpis actually is pretty popular for vacationing.” Jack stated, going to stand up by the Fast Travel machine.

“Hey, what's that little bit of structure here used for?” Rhys questioned, pointing nearby to a small metal structure with some railings, and metal panels placed into the ground.

“Oh, see that little computer there?” Jack pointed to the small metal box standing between the two metal sheets on the ground. “It's used to order up a ride, just like the Catch-A-Ride system back home on Pandora.”

“Huh, Scooter even had stuff on the moon?” Rhys questioned.

“Actually, if I recall correctly, the moon rides are built and supplied by your friend Janey Springs.” Jack corrected Rhys.

“Oh, wow really? That's great!” Rhys went to activate the computer. “Maybe instead of fast travelling we can-”

“Broken?” Jack raised an eyebrow as he watched the frown spread across Rhys's face.

“Broken.” Rhys let out a sigh, pushing a few more buttons before giving up. “A lot of these outposts are really old and run down, huh?” Rhys noted. “...Maybe that's a project for ATLAS...” He turned back to Jack. “Wait, if this is broken, is the Fast Travel broken as well?”

“Only one way to find out.” Jack stepped aside and motioned to the machine for Rhys to step up and give it a shot. “Just turn it on and see what happens.”

“Alright.” Rhys walked up to the machine and knelt down to where the switch was, giving it a quick flick before standing up and waiting to see how the machine reacted.

 

“Preforming System Setup.” A robotic, female sounding voice spoke as the machine slowly woke up from its unknown period of suspension. A few parts on the machine moved and opened, a projector and lens popping up and adjusting itself. “Welcome to Hyperion New-U. Digi-struction, online. Fast Travel – Error 112345, corruption detected. Consult the user manual. Please select an option.”

“Oh great, that's pretty much broken too.” Rhys started to sulk away, preparing for another long trek through the moon's wastelands.

“H-Hey wait a minute!” Jack stepped in front of Rhys to stop him. “All is not lost yet, we don't know how badly its broken. At least try to fix it up before you give up.”

“I never dealt much with these types of Hyperion machines.” Rhys looked back at Jack. “I wouldn't even know where to start when it comes to trying to fix it.”

“I can tell you how.” Jack said.

“It's not worth the effort, I probably won't understand half the stuff you tell me.” Rhys responded. “Let's just start walking.”

“If it's too much work for you, let me do it myself then.” Jack suggested.

“How are you going to manage that?” Rhys questioned. “You're a projection inside my mind, you have no physical body, how do you expect you're gonna fix this machine on your own?”

“Well I mean, obviously I'd need just a little bit of help on your part.” Jack gestured to Rhys's eye socket that had his Echo Eye lens.

“No.” Rhys was blunt. “You really think that after that incident in the factory I'm gonna let you have access to anything ever again?”

“...Yeeeeees?” Jack replied hopeful.

“No.” Rhys continued on walking.

“Oh, c'mon!” Jack called back to him. “I literally can't kill you with this thing, even if I wanted to. Do you even know what a New-U does?”

“What does it do?” Rhys sighed reluctantly.

“New-Us are made to re-spawn someone who has died.” Jack explained. “So if I did somehow manage to kill you, the machine would just bring you back anyway.”

“Since when did Hyperion figure out how to cheat death, and why hadn't I heard about it?” Rhys turned back around to question Jack.

“Since I was the engineer.” Jack stated proudly. “It was still pretty new and we only had a few hundred placed around for testing reasons. Combined the technology of the Fast Travel with something unique.”

“How does it bring one back to life, exactly?” Rhys had to ask.

“Y'know how the Catch-A-Ride systems work? It can just digi-struct something from thin air based on a preset pattern?” Jack started in on his explaination. “Combine that with the technology that Fast-Travels use to move bio-matter from location to location, and suddenly you're able to reconstruct a living human being from a recent scan of their 'pattern'.”

“...Okay, I'll admit, that's impressive.” Rhys stood with a hand on his side, looking the machine over now. “Though you'll have to forgive me for not willing to test it out.”

“That's fine.” Jack responded. “Anyway, no worries about me using it for evil or anything, so what do you say you upload me directly into this thing, and I'll do some digging and see what I can do to fix it up?”

Rhys sighed again, it seemed pretty legit and it didn't look like a dangerous machine. “Alright fine, where's the USB port.” He said Jokingly, approaching the machine and knowing it'd be a bit more complicated than that.

 

“Thank you!” Jack smiled at Rhys. “We have an agreement and I'm determined to prove you can still trust me.” He jumped right into directing Rhys on what to do. “Just take my lens out and connect it up to that exposed port right there.” He point at a small port near the base of the New-U. “It's simple really, but with all the exposed wires and slight damage, and missing parts on my end, you'll wanna try your best to avoid getting a shock.”

“Okay...” Rhys hesitated for a moment. “This is very odd though, just a few hours ago you were begging me not to disconnect you, and now you're up for it willingly?”

“Yes, because back then you were planning to kill me.” Jack frowned. “Now though you're disconnecting me with the intention of reconnecting me to this machine so we can make some progress.”

“...What's stopping me from disconnecting you and destroying you once you're not here to talk me out of it?” Rhys crooked an eyebrow towards the AI.

“Well then, I suppose our agreement is still into play, and if you're to trust me, I guess I'm just gonna have to do the same and trust you not to do that.” Jack stared back at Rhys. “You're not going to do that though, right?”

“...” Rhys didn't respond, leaving Jack with a feeling of uneasiness. “Are you sure this is how it works?” Rhys questioned, focusing back on hooking Jack up to the machine.

“Are you a professional engineer?” Jack questioned Rhys.

“Well, no, not exactly. Most of my tech experience is more of a hobby and from hands on-”

Jack knelt down next to Rhys and placed a hand on his shoulder, leaving hardly any breathing room between their faces as he looked Rhys dead in the eyes and spoke in a condescending and mildly threatening tone. “Well then, if that's the case I suggest you stop _questioning my decisions and put. Me. In. The. Fucking. Machine._ ”

Rhys swallowed hard looking back at Jack. He knew he didn't have to listen to Jack's demands at all, and part of him wanted to rebel just out of spite of being spoken to like that. He knew Jack wasn't physically there, and couldn't actually hurt him or do anything to him... Rhys just wished he knew why even still, the man could scare him so easily into submission. “Alright, if you're completely sure-”

“Am I sure? I just told-”

Rhys disconnected Jack, taking a moment to appreciate the silence.

 

Rhys took his attention back to the machine, sizing up the port that Jack instructed him to plug the lens into. He gazed back down at the small lens now sitting in the palm of his hands. It's be so easy for him right now, to just kill Jack like he mentioned and be done with it. No more risks, no more guilt, just done and over with as quick as that. Jack wouldn't even know, he was left with the impression he was being uploaded into a machine. It was tempting to follow through with the thoughts, Rhys would be lying if he didn't say the quiet was pleasing and that Jack was often so annoying...

Rhys laid Jack's lens aside for another moment. During this time of deep thoughts, he took advantage and decided to put his ATLAS eye back into his head, preparing himself in advance and restoring proper vision. He gazed back down at the old Echo Eye, scanning it with his current one.

The readings that came back to him just identified as a random piece of Hyperion technology. Just looking at it without knowing what it was, clearly it looked like junk. It was amazing that something like the majority Jack's programming was stored in there, and still functioning after everything no less. Just looking at it as is though... There was absolutely nothing about the lens that could be used to determine that it had any bit of life in it at all... Rhys stiffened up for a minute while on that thought.

Jack was scared of dying, that was obvious. It was why he didn't Rhys to disconnect him for ever, even now he was probably sitting in a state of suspended death. It was a funny though to think about him being afraid of dying given the fact the real Handsome Jack was already long dead and gone, but this one... This clone? Copy? What put Rhys off the most when it came to dealing with this Jack, was the fact he didn't seem to be able to wrap his head around the fact he was nothing but a piece of programming. Nothing but a computer programmed to act and think like Handsome Jack did. He wasn't actually Jack, and would never be Jack. He was a completely separate entity just loosely based on... a pattern... a template... Whoever made the program how would they have even known what Jack was like exactly? They could get pretty close to him but only Jack himself would be able to program something that was exactly like himself... And as far as Rhys knew, Jack had no involvement in the creation of this AI.

And yet, here was the AI, sounding like, looking like, acting like, and pretending like he actually was Handsome Jack transferred to a digital plane. Rhys found it ironic, the past statement this Jack made about robots and computers not being able to experience actual feelings... The feelings this AI displayed seemed pretty real to Rhys.

Rhys now looked back at the New-U, the Fast Travel was still broken and he had no idea how to fix it. He recalled his agreement with Jack, putting faith into it while also recalling all the dangerous parts of the machine to be aware of where they could possibly spring out and harm him. He sighed, making a choice and reaching to hook the wires from the lens into the New-U. He finished and Stepped back.

 

The machine seemed to almost instantly shut down. It stayed for a few seconds, then rebooted itself. It made lots of strange beeping and robotic sounds. The machine parts whirred in strained breaths as they tried to function properly whilst being restrained at the same time. “W-w-we-welcome-” The computerized voice was now clunky and extremely corrupted sounding. Rhys had to question what Jack was doing to the machine from the inside, causing problems like that to occur. Rhys got a bad feeling as he stepped back just a little bit more and braced himself for the worst. The machine continued to glitch out and break into weird patterns of moving parts and lights, everything going haywire. Eventually it fell silent as the machine shut down completely now.

A few minutes passed now as it remained dormant and quiet. Rhys titled his head to the side and looked it over with curiosity. “Did he short it out or something?” Rhys wondered. He built up the courage to approach the machine, reaching a hand out towards it.

Rhys jumped and pulled his hand back as the machine reacted to his motions, the projector twisted and turned to look directly at Rhys. It glowed slightly, as the rest of the machine did now as well.

Rhys stared blankly back into the optic. “...Jack?” Rhys spoke his name, hoping to get some response and possibly an explanation as to what just happened.

“ _Heh_...Haha... AHAHAHAHAH!” Jack's voice crudely played out over the poor sound card of the machine. “Oh man, Rhys... You never learn do you?” Something about that statement was extremely sinister.

That was a major red flag, causing Rhys to back up again, readying himself.

“Oh well look at you, you ready for a fight or something?” Jack laughed again. “Good news, the Fast Travel is completely corrupted. Even better news... _So am I._ ”

“Dammit Jack!” Rhys hissed. “We had an agreement! I told you this would be the last time you'd do this shit to me!”

“Oh you're right, It will be the last time kiddo...” Jack growled back. “Hey, you wanna see a magic trick?”

“Whatever you're up to... It's not going to work!” Rhys made a motion towards the machine, yanking out the lens from the port. Jack just laughed even more.

“Do whatever the hell you want with that thing, I don't need it anymore. I'm not in it, Rhys.”

Rhys scowled and crushed the lens in his hand, tossing to remains aside into the dirt. “I thought you said this machine wasn't dangerous!” Rhys scowled.

“It's not.” Jack replied. “But y'know what is dangerous...?”

 

 

“Me.”

 

Rhys was taken back with surprise as the machine started to activate and a bright light came from it, projecting something out of it's optics. Through the bright light Rhys could make out a shape, a figure. It was a man, a familiar man... No... It couldn't be.

“Surprise!” Jack's voice cut through the atmosphere like matchsticks in gasoline. It wasn't robotic and computerized anymore, it sounded natural... It sounded real.

Rhys blinked a few times, only to still be horrified by what he was seeing. It was Jack, but nothing like Rhys was just looking at... He was standing face to face with Rhys, a wide smirk plaster on his face, his actual face no blue tinted projection of a computer. Rhys could see every detail of him, his skin colour, his hair style, the texture of his clothing, the fact he was leaving physical prints in the sand under his feet...

“H-how...” Rhys stumbled backwards as Jack walked towards him.

“Seems like you weren't exactly listening to me when I was explaining what a New-U does.” Jack smiled as he closed the space between them, trapping Rhys against the structure for the vehicle system. “It brings dead people back to life.”

“No... no no no no no...” Rhys tripped falling hard against the metal panelling, a wave of anxiety rushing over his body as he scampered to get some sort of footing while Jack mercilessly loomed over him.

“Yes. Yes yes yes yes!” Jack mocked Rhys. “It's a simple concept really, according to you I was dead, and according to that machine, now I'm not.”

“Can't... Can't be happening...” Rhys struggled to breathe properly and remain calm. He was freaking out. To explain what he was currently feeling it was like being food poisoned with a headache and someone slowly squeezing his lungs as he tried to breathe properly. He was just shaking uncontrollably all over and couldn't get a grip on what was happening.

“God, how many times now have I tricked you?” Jack questioned. “Oh woe is me, you're my only hope cause I'm sooo horrible and pathetic and I need to be taught how to be a good person! Boo-hoo!” Jack laughed. “God you're the one who's actually pathetic here, Rhys.”

“S-Stop!” Rhys used the metal behind him as a support, trying to stand up to Jack now, though his knees were still knocking together like a Newton's Cradle. “This is impossible! It has to be a bad dream, you weren't a real person, you were just an AI!”

“Correction, and AI with a vengeance.” Jack stared Rhys down. “And if I recall correctly, you ruined my company.”

“I ruined Jack's company, not yours! You're just a clone!” Rhys scowled. “And yes, I did ruin it! He deserved it, and there's nothing you can possibly do to bring it back... So what are you going to do now, huh? Kill me?”

“Oh no actually I was just thinking we could sit down and have a nice chat and sort this out like civil-” Jack suddenly cut himself short and lunged at Rhys with an outstretched hand, wrapping his fingers around Rhys's neck and pinning him back against the metal panel. “YES, I'M GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOU.”

Rhys's gasp was taken back by the fact Jack was physically there and could actually hurt him now. He wasn't a hologram anymore, as much as Rhys prayed this wasn't the reality. Jack was real... Rhys found himself snapping back as he struggled to breathe with Jack's grip getting tighter around his windpipe with every passing second. It was sucking the life out of him quicker than walking on the surface of the moon with no Oz kit would do to him.

“You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do this.” Jack grunted as he clamped down even harder on Rhys's neck. “To squeeze out the very last bits of life from your veins, to get revenge for what you did to me and my ship... For betraying me...I gave you everything a man could of asked for, Rhys!”

“You... You wanted to... Meat suit.” Rhys choked out, placing his hands against Jack's in an attempt to free himself, prying at the death grip with no luck.

“I was going to make you famous... You could of ruled Hyperion, been my new skin...” Jack scowled. “I suppose I could still do the meat suit thing with your corpse.”

“A...Ah...” Rhys couldn't breathe, he was starting to feel dizzy and go weak. The feeling of passing out felt the exact same when he ran out of air in his Oz kit... _Wait a minute._

“Yeah that's right... Scream... or at least try to. We're in space, you ever hear that one saying-” Jack was taken off guard as he was suddenly pushed away from Rhys with a blast of energy.

Rhys fell to his knees, holding his neck and coughing, gasping to get his air back. He looked at Jack who had skidded backwards and slammed against the the stand of the oxygen machine.

“Why you little-” Jack quickly stood up again, cracking his neck. “You remember how I told you some people hunt Sirens just to see if they can kill em for the hell of it?”

Rhys heaved as he shook and tried to stand up on his own, he watched as Jack walked towards him again.

“I think I just decided to pick up the sport.” Jack smirked. “You're going to be my first kill.”

 

Jack made another go for Rhys, managing to quite literally kick him while he was down. “You little bitch, you really think just because you have those stupid powers you'd be able to get rid of me that easily?” Jack laughed. “I'm going to make this a slow, and painful death.”

Rhys grimaced as Jack tackled him to the ground now, going once again for his neck and he straddled him. Jack's weight was more than enough to easily overpower Rhys and his more lighter build. Rhys did managed to catch Jack's hand this time before it wrapped it's claws back around his neck. He held it back with his most dominant hand, the cybernetic one, leaning on the machinery for support. It was a struggle to hold Jack back.

“You're not... I won't let you...” Rhys suddenly found a chance and shifted and kicked hard, knocking Jack away, and loosing no time while he quickly scrambled to his feet, standing fully this time, guard up and refusing to be taken down again. He gave a flick of his wrist and in one swift motion pulled his baton, turning it up and aiming it towards Jack. “Back off.”

Jack looked up at Rhys and the baton. He chuckled. “You think that's going to stop me?” Jack smirked. “Do you even realize who you're dealing with here?”

“A murderer?” Rhys suggested.

“Worse, I'm your worst nightmare.” Jack quickly rolled behind Rhys, standing up and grabbing his arm from behind, bending it unnaturally backwards and forcing Rhys to yelp and drop the Baton. With a hold still on Rhys Jack acted quickly and used some quick foot work to flip the baton back up and caught it in his free hand. He had just turned the tables on Rhys as quick as that. He held the baton close to Rhys's neck. “You're dead.”

“Not yet.” Rhys said, shifting his weight slightly and trying to tug out of Jack's hold. “Listen Jack, we can talk about this. Think about all the great things you can do now that you're alive!”

“Don't use my own tricks against me.” Jack replied and threatened Rhys. “You're the one who's dumb enough to fall for them, not me.”

“Yeah, well... I may be an idiot.” Rhys smirked and stepped in a direction with great force, enough to throw Jack off. He gained some distance and turned around to aim his left hand at Jack. “But at least I'm an idiot with an Oz Kit.”

“What.”

 

Jack's question got answered as he found himself suddenly lifted up into the air by Rhys, utilizing his Seer powers. He was only shown some mercy for a brief moment before Rhys moved his arm and caused Jack to violently be slammed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. The impact caused Jack to drop the baton, of which Rhys brought back to himself, tucking it safely away in his belt.

Jack coughed from the dust and the impact with the ground. He struggled to sit up, holding his side. “Oh you mother fuc-”

Rhys finally had a chance to let all of his anger out, and he was determined to take it all out on Jack. He suddenly motioned again and shoved Jack harshly across the ground and outside of the range of the oxygen bubble. He watched as Jack was now the one gasping for air. Holding him back like this, Rhys felt similar to a certain villain from a space paced movie trilogy he watched once.

“You're not supposed to be alive, Jack.” Rhys pointed out. “It's one thing to be an AI but to bring back Jack in the flesh and blood? I can't have that.”

Jack laughed lightly while trying to survive. “You... Make a point...”

“So... I guess I'll be known as the man who killed Jack... Twice.” Rhys smiled, having no regard for Jack's current state of health.

“G-Good for... you.” Jack wheezed. “We're not so d-different, you and I.”

“What do you mean?” Rhys frowned and questioned him.

“M-Murder.” Jack choked out.

“I...” Rhys bit down on his tongue. “You're a coward, Jack!”

“And you... you're not?” Jack barely managed to get that sentence out, he was running out of time.

“Goddammit.” Rhys huffed and reeled Jack back in, just past the outskirts of the bubble, letting the hold on him go.

Jack gasped hard and started breathing again, he just laid on his back looking up at the sky. He was laughing slightly between painful breaths.

“...Stop laughing!” Rhys lifted his hand and picked Jack up again, bringing him close to stand with him face to face. “What is wrong with you!?”

“A lot... A lot of things!” Jack chuckled, looking back at Rhys with a smug grin. “But God, you're so much like me... I would, and tried to do the same thing you just did to me. Tried to you.”

“Yes, but I didn't kill you, you're still breathing and alive, so therefore, I am nothing like you.” Rhys responded, every time Jack mentioned Rhys being like him, it irked him unconditionally.

“And yet you say I'm the coward?” Jack raised an eyebrow at Rhys. “I'm not afraid to carry out a kill once I set my mind on it.”

“I'm not afraid to kill you.” Rhys stated. “I spared you because I am the bigger person. I am above simply killing someone because I don't like them. Did you not see what I had done to Vasquez?”

“And I suppose you think that makes you a good person?” Jack questioned. “Tell me Rhys, aside from me, how many people do you think you killed when you slammed Helios into the ground?”

“That's not the same at all! It didn't count!” Rhys exclaimed. “It was for the greater good, and a lot of them made it to the escape pods. It's not my fault you made a ship that held more people than escape pods in case something went wrong.” He took a moment. “And besides, you've killed way more than that between Pandora and Elpis!”

“For the greater good huh? Yeah I told myself that too, the people I killed were for the greater good of both planets Rhys, and yet you're gonna try to call me out on it?” Jack scowled. “Let's face it, what you did was no different than what I did. We both killed people Rhys. You and I... We're the same, any way you cut the pie. Murderers... Monsters...”

“SHUT UP!” Rhys flinched and dropped Jack to the ground. He proceeded to walk up to man and grab him physically by the collar of his waistcoat, bringing his face close to Jack's. He spoke sternly. “I am _nothing_ like you. I will never be like you, I don't _want_ to be like you. I'm ashamed to have even known you, let alone to have allow myself to be blinded and regard you as a hero. You're _nothing_ , you hear me? You have _nothing_. You're just a cruel, mean, heartless, self-centred prick who kills others and destroys things for his own personal gain and fucked up sense of pride and morality. Don't you _ever_ compare me to you again.”

 

Jack didn't exactly have anything to shoot back. He just remained quiet, looking back into Rhys's eyes. This kid meant what he said, and honestly Jack was never handled and spoken to like this before, no one dared to lay a hand on him. And the last person he'd expect this treatment from was someone like Rhys... The kid proved his point, he wasn't scared of Jack... He was angry with him.

The shock passed quickly and Jack regained his composure, he scowled and spoke up, gripping his own hand around Rhys's wrist in an attempt to remove his hand from his coat collar. “What are you then if those labels don't apply to you as well?” Jack asked. “What do you call a man who is offered everything he is wanted, stepped on toes to get it, and then throws it all away within inches of owning it all? Becoming co-CEO of Hyperion wasn't enough for you, you had to destroy the company, and then pry the rights to ATLAS from my cold, dead, digital hands. Oh but I'm not done. You looted that vault too anyway, kept a fine sum for yourself, and then kept me on standby, in a state of endless torture just so you can use me for your own personal gain? _What do you call a man who acts like that, Rhys._ We're the sa-”

Rhys hauled off and slammed his metal fist into Jack's jaw, letting go of him and pointing a stern finger at him while Jack wiped the blood from his lip and looked back at Rhys with an expression of surprise. “I told you not to EVER compare us again.” Rhys lowered his fists when he realized Jack wasn't going to retaliate this time around. “I don't care for what you have to say anymore, I'm done listening to this bullshit of yours and I refuse to let you turn this all around on me and make me feel guilty and make me look like the bad guy. You're a dead man walking Jack, just be aware of that. If it wasn't for me you wouldn't of even made it this far, and would already be dead. Be thankful, if anything.”

“Y'know if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be physically standing here right now either.” Jack pointed out.

“And I regret allowing it to happen, I regret ever putting my trust into you and allowing you to break it so many times before I finally draw the line!” Rhys shot back.

“Then why not kill me already?” Jack started to pry into Rhys. “If you have that much of a problem, and want to fix things for you, all you have to do is kill me.”

“Because that's not my style.” Rhys replied. “I'd rather leave your death to everyone else who's alive and still has a grudge against you... Like Lilith.”

“Oh right, that bitch is still alive...” Jack frowned. “Looks like I have a lot of unfinished business to do here.”

 

Rhys glared at Jack. “Don't you dare.”

“You underestimate what I can do.” Jack replied. “You don't stop me right now, I'll go on to kill everyone you know and care for... And when I'm done I'll slowly kill you.”

“You're basically asking me to kill you at this point, you realize that right?” Rhys titled his head to the side.

“I'm asking you to prove you have a pair of balls.”

“Forget it Jack.” Rhys frowned and slowly walked outside of the Oz bubble. “I'm done with you, and I'm not going to grant you the satisfaction of death.”

“Where are you going? Walking away like a coward...” Jack spoke up.

“I'm walking away like a smart man.” Rhys turned to smirk at Jack. “As you may notice the Fast Travel is broken, we're in the middle of no where, and you don't have an Oz Kit.”

“So, what does that have to do with anything?” Jack looked a bit confused.

“How do you plan on killing everyone I love, when you can't leave the bubble?” Rhys smirked wide as Jack finally caught on. “Have fun trying to hold your breath for a few miles.” Rhys started to walk off again.

“Wait a minute...” Jack lost his smug look and frantically looked around the surrounding area in a panic trying to find something he could use to his advantage. “Shit... Rhys!” Jack got as close to the edge of the bubble as he could without leaving the oxygen field.

“Burn in Hell, Jack.” Rhys raised his hand up and gave Jack the middle finger while continuing to disappear over the sand dunes.

“Rhys!” Jack called out to him, his tone angry and annoyed now. “Rhys you son of a bitch get back her and fight me like a man! You can't just leave me here!” Jack continued to spit out a string of cuss words and hisses to the empty company. “Goddammit, you can't do this to me, you can't just leave me here you asshole! Fucking traitor! Goddamn mother fucking backstabbing bastard of a bandit! I'm sick of people doing this shit to me! I've gone through this bullshit for too long! When I get... When I get my fucking hands around his scrawny little neck I... I'm...Mother fucker I'm going to kill him!”

Rhys was long gone out of sight and earshot by now. The area fell silent, Jack was alone and by himself, stranded and left to rot on the surface of the moon, if he didn't boil to death from his own blood pressure.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!! SON OF A BITCH.”

The scream landed on deaf ears.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This chapter has been revised***
> 
> HOLY SHIT I DID IT. I revised all existing chapters. The revisions end HERE and anything past this point is new content. It's been almost a year... Finally the wheels are in motion again. I don't feel like it's been rushed anymore, everything flows better and make more sense, I cut out bits that didn't made sense, made some small modifications... It begins.
> 
> Thank you for reading so far up until this point. :)


	16. Honestly, Lying?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys finds his way back to his friends on his own, apologizes to them, continues to be truthful, and tells them what happened with Jack. They don't believe him at first about the whole revival thing, but seeings how concerned Rhys is about it they agree to return to the area Rhys left Jack. Upon arriving, the area is deserted, leading to Rhys's friends to question if he was lying again. Rhys swore he wasn't, and became rightfully worried that Jack was missing. Vaughn was able to prove Rhys's honesty as he found a pair of very familiar footprints in the moon dust. The group actually believes Rhys now, and they all become concerned that a reincarnation of Handsome Jack is roaming free on the surface of Elpis, and the danger he could pose is a great threat. Feeling guilty for all of this, Rhys takes action with the only thing they can do - track Jack down and put an end to him once and for all before any more damage can be done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, the first official NEW CONTENT chapter since the major revisions of the previous 15 chapters. Enjoy.

“I wish I knew my ATLAS GPS would be working sooner. Could of saved myself a lot of trouble.” Rhys commented to himself as he made his way through the gates of Concordia, trying his best to avoid the stupid Claptrap commissionaires. “The gang is probably back by now, that or they went looking for me, either way popping back into Moxxi's wouldn't be a bad idea.” And Rhys did just that, walking up the stairs into the main spot of the bar.

Jack's assumptions about Rhys's friends weren't too far off either. Sitting their at their usual booth, looking worried and chatting about their next move, was Rhys's group of friends. Sasha saw Rhys coming up the stairs of the bar and she instantly jumped up out of her seat to greet him.

“Ah! Rhys! You've made it back, and you're okay!” She paused. “...Is Jack with us.”

“I got rid of him. Honestly.” Rhys replied, then was suddenly taken by surprise from her sudden hug.

“Oh my gosh, that's a relief to hear! I knew you'd do the right thing.” Sasha replied.

“Proud of you, buddy!” Vaughn called out to him

“I'm impressed, I was fully expecting the worst news.” Fiona smirked.

“Don't smirk just yet, Fi.” Rhys sighed, following Sasha to the table and taking a seat. “Listen, if there's one thing I learned from all of this, that's the fact that me lying to you guys is horrible, and leads to nothing but trouble.” Rhys started to speak.

“You only now realized this?” Fiona rolled her eyes.

“Sadly, yes.” Rhys looked back at her. “And with that said I also trust that you're all my friends here and wouldn't judge me or outcast me for any mistakes or bad decisions I've made, yes?”

“Of course bro, isn't that what friends are for?” Vaughn looked over at Rhys. “Though you wouldn't be saying that unless you had a reason to...”

“...What happened?” Fiona caught on now as well, glaring back at Rhys.

Rhys took a deep breath. “Just promise not to loose your heads about what I'm about to tell you...”

 

“...I accidentally allowed Jack to come back to life.”

There was a harsh silence that fell over everyone as they just stared back at Rhys, mostly confused trying to figure out what exactly he meant by that.

“...You... Allowed Jack to come back to life?” Sasha questioned.

“Yes.”

“What do you mean by that?” Fiona spoke up.

“I mean, some things happened while I was busy dealing with him, and he may have tricked me again, and now the goddamn AI managed himself a flesh and blood body and is stranded in an oxygen bubble!” Rhys exclaimed.

“You're pulling our legs, bro.” Vaughn gave him a shifty look. “It's not funny by the way.”

“I thought you were going to start being honest with us, Rhys.” Sasha frowned at Rhys.

“I am! I'm being serious about this!” Rhys shot back. “I ran a few miles out due to my stupid powers, and we came across a different type of Fast Travel unit. Jack said it was a New-U system or something, and it apparently can construct bodies from bio material the same way Catch-A-Rides make vehicles. He tricked me into uploading him into the machine under the guise that he was going to fix the Fast Travel in it so I could get back here sooner, and took complete advantage of it!” Rhys stopped to scold himself. “God I was such an idiot to allow him to talk and manipulate me into trusting him again, and look what happened!”

“So what you're telling us is that Jack reconstructed his body, probably uploaded the AI brain into the new brain, and essentially brought himself back into the world?” Vaughn questioned.

“That's exactly what I'm telling you.” Rhys replied.

“And you left him out there, on his own? Unsupervised?” Fiona looked at him with worry.

“...Yes.”

 

The group quickly stood up, jumping into action. “Goddamit Rhys, as if we didn't already have enough problems, we didn't need you bringing one of the most evil men in the universe back into existence!” Fiona scolded.

“Suppose you're telling the truth, where did you leave him?” Sasha looked at Rhys with a serious expression.

“I am telling the truth, and I'll lead you right to him.” Rhys replied, already starting to walk out with the group. “He can't go anywhere, he quite literally stranded, it's just an oxygen bubble in the middle of no where and he doesn't have an Oz Kit.”

“For your sake, if this is legit, you better hope he can't go anywhere.” Vaughn replied.

“What are we going to do with him if we go back for him anyway?” Rhys questioned them.

“Dispose of him, hopefully.” Fiona sneered.

“Oh man, a chance to shoot the man himself. Maybe this isn't a bad thing after all, Rhys.” Sasha smiled. “Get to see how well those new guns you got us work on other humans.”

Rhys swallowed hard, they wanted to kill him. Of course they wanted to kill him, but what kind of statement would that make? Rhys couldn't kill Jack himself, but yet his friends have no problem doing it... All that would do is prove Jack's point, but his friends weren't exactly wrong either... Jack was dangerous, Rhys didn't need to be told this because he already knew, and something had to be done, and if killing him was the only option...

“He's back to the north over the dust-desert.” Rhys stated. “Though it took me a few good hours to get here from there, and with the threat of the quakes we're just wasting a bunch of time.”

“Well, looks like that's a problem you created, isn't it?” Fiona looked back at him. “But we have to clean up your mess, cause Handsome Jack is much, much worse than an exploding moon.”

“I have an idea.” Vaughn spoke up. “Moxxi was talking about the Moon Zoomy systems Janey had set up everywhere on the moon, I think the one outside of Concordia still works. I know Janey won't mind us using it, so why don't we grab some Stingrays and head off to find Jack?”

“Sounds fun.” Sasha grinned, speeding up ahead of the group to head for the gates of Concordia.

“A good idea actually.” Rhys looked back at Vaughn. “I saw one of those at the location I left Jack at... It wasn't working but do you think the systems track the location of all the other stations anyway?”

“You may be onto something Rhys.” Vaughn replied “We may be able to input some options into the GPS and take some tracking from your ATLAS programming to narrow it down even more.”

“Then what are we standing around here for, let's go round up a murderer.” Fiona pushed the two ahead of her, and they all headed for the Moon Zoomy station.

 

 

“It should be just up ahead here.” Rhys called out to the others as he dashed ahead of them on the Stingray, making a large leap into the air. It took him a few tries to get used to how the machine worked, falling off of it and almost getting killed, but now he was riding like a pro.

“Yeah, GPS says we're in the right spot.” Vaughn confirmed, following behind Rhys.

“So um, how are we going to approach this?” Sasha asked, leaping into the air as well, purposely jumping over Rhys to scare him. “Hi Jack, we're here to kill you.”

“I mean, I guess?” Rhys looked over at her. “I don't know how you exactly put it lightly, telling someone you're going to kill them.”

“I mean we could just shoot him in the head with no questions asked.” Fiona suggested.

“That's kinda extreme.” Rhys said.

“Extreme? Rhys the man tried to kill us, mainly you, on multiple occasions.” Sasha scolded him. “Killing him is merciful.”

“Yeah but it's just...” Rhys slowed down a bit, causing the others to stop too in annoyance.

“Rhys what's the hold up.” Fiona complained.

“Look, I don't think we should kill him.”

“Are you STILL sucking up to him? Seriously? After all that's happened?” Vaughn scowled at Rhys. “Bro, you got some serious case of Stockholm Syndrome.”

“It's not that, and it's not about sucking up to him...” Rhys looked back at him. “It's about proving a point and not letting him be right about things.”

“And those things would be?” Sasha raised an eyebrow.

“I almost killed him myself.” Rhys admitted. “Using my powers, I was suffocating him.”

“Yeah and those marks on your neck tell me that didn't exactly work out for you.” Fiona scoffed.

“Okay, he did attack me yes, but he tried to kill me, and in doing so he kept... Drawing parallels between me and him.” Rhys complained. “He said I was the same as him, that I screwed up just as much, and that I've killed as much as he had... I spared him to prove a point.”

“So you let him inside your head again, great.” Sasha sighed. “Rhys, you're nothing like Jack, why would you even let him bother you with something like that. You killed people accidentally, he did it on purpose, there's a difference.”

“Yeah, but what about how I took over ATLAS? All the power I've gained? Here I am just a guy in over my head thinking I'm the hottest thing ever and I can dance in God's domain while I try to stop a moon from blowing up like some sort of superhero... Something I'm not.” Rhys said. “I don't feel good about killing him, it makes me feel dirty, as if I'm stooping to his level.”

“Well then you don't have to kill him. One of us will, without hesitation.” Fiona replied.

“I can't just sit there in good conscious and watch you kill the man.”

“Then head back to Concordia.” Sasha suggested.

“I know you're going to kill him, leaving like that wouldn't ease it...” Rhys tried to explain. “It just wouldn't sit well with me... I'm better than that... You're all better than that.”

 

“Rhys...” Fiona spoke up. “What do you suggest we do about this then if we don't kill him?”

“...Maybe we can collect him and turn him in?” Rhys suggested. “Toss him behind bars for eternity.”

“And you think that's going to prevent his death?” Sasha laughed. “Have you seen how Pandora operates. The minute we announce we're bringing Handsome Jack back to be locked up, someone is going to assassinate him. Death for him is ineffable”

“I mean, it wouldn't be instant-”

“Rhys.” Vaughn had to step in now. “There's nothing you can do, unless you're going to personally house and protect the man, which I doubt you're gonna do because he's going to kill you any chance he gets. And if you still want to, I personally will not let you help him like that.”

Rhys sighed. “It's just hard for me, okay.”

“I don't know, whenever someone tries to take my life once, I hold a grudge against them, so if they tried like multiple times to do so...” Fiona trailed off.

“I just have this strange feeling about him I can't shake... As if all of this is happening for a reason as if...” Rhys paused for a moment debating if he actually wanted to say this out loud. “What if we need him for something?”

The group busted out laughing.

“What could we possibly need a creep like Handsome Jack for?” Sasha asked.

“I don't know, he seems pretty knowledgeable, like aside from tricking me, before he did that he _did_ help me out.” Rhys shrugged. “I mean, he has some information on what's going on with me. I'm a Seer by the way.”

“Great, we know what you are. There's more people than Handsome Jack that has a full history on Pandora and anything affiliated with it.” Vaughn responded.

“He knows a lot about Elpis too though.” Rhys tried to reason. “Like, he knows it personally. Maybe we can use him to help us solve the bigger issue.”

“Right, and risk taking his advice and allowing him to trick us into blowing up the moon per-maturely?” Sasha gave Rhys a certain look.

“You guys have no trust at all, do you?”

“Why would we?” Sasha laughed. “Rhys, I think the Moonstones are getting to your head, just listen to yourself... This is Jack we're talking about... Think about that for a moment, think about this man we're talking about.”

Rhys let out a heavy sigh, starting up his Sting Ray again. “You're right... I just... I wish we didn't have to kill him. Punish him in another way.”

“The safest thing for everyone is to kill him.”

“I know...”

 

“Rhys, is that the air bubble?” Vaughn pointed ahead at the small pocket of air with the metal structures inside it sitting at the bottom of the valley of sands.

“Yes! That's it!” Rhys said rushing ahead a bit, not out of eagerness to see Jack again, but rather to protect his friends with his powers if anything were to go wrong. “...Oh no.”

The bubble wasn't very big, there wasn't much things in it aside from the machines and the Moon Zoomy station. There wasn't really anywhere to hide either. Upon approaching it, Rhys quickly dismounted from his Sting Ray, running for the bubble and activating his ATLAS eye to scan for any heat signatures, just incase he was missing something.

“Wow Rhys, look at that, an empty bubble...” Sasha walked into the area. “You lied to us, intentionally or not. It's defiantly the Moonrocks.”

“I'm not lying about this! Why would I lie about this!” Rhys snapped back at her.

“You're going crazy.” Sasha shook her head.

“I'm not!” Rhys looked around the area in shock. “He's gone! Of course he's gone! I left him to his own devices and that was one device too many, it's goddamn Handsome Jack _of course he's fucking gone._ ”

“Rhys, maybe we should take you back to Moxxi and have you rest for a bit? You've had a rough day.” Fiona walked up to him, trying to take a hold of him and calm him down but Rhys would have none of it, he kept searching the area for any possible hiding spots.

“Hold on.” Vaughn walked into the area, examining the ground. “Rhys may be telling the truth.”

“Huh?” All three of them looked back at Vaughn.

“You're after trampling some of the prints but-” Vaughn walked to the opposite side of the bubble, stepping out side of it a bit and examining some noticeable footprints in the dust. “There's three sets of footprints here.” He took out a small device that displayed a holographic tape measure, he used it to measure the prints. “Moon Rat, Maniac...” He paused for a moment identifying the third footprint.

“Is something wrong?” Fiona asked Vaughn, noting he froze up a bit.

“...When we worked for Hyperion there was a certain set of rules we had to know, some obscure ones...One of those included Jack's exact shoe size and preferred build and brand.” Vaughn doubled checked the footprint before standing up, a bit more pale in the face now. “Rhys isn't lying.”

Rhys calmed down slightly at this news, the girls however looked just as worried as Vaughn was.

“You're not serious right? What if someone just had the same type of shoe?” Fiona asked.

“Impossible.” Vaughn replied. “Jack, as you can imagine, was a very over the top and specific man... no one had shoes like he had.”

“...Those are his footprints, isn't it?” Sasha sighed with regret.

“Yep.” Vaughn looked over the prints a bit more, before considering the whole area. “I know you thought he'd be safe here Rhys, would be trapped and unable to leave, but by the looks of it... I think a few bandits came by and found him. And well... Knowing Jack...”

“He escaped.” Rhys frowned. “He's out there somewhere now, wandering, with an Oz Kit, and possibly a gun.”

“Most likely a gun.” Sasha said.

“Great.” Fiona added. “You unleashed a mad man onto the surface of Elpis.” She addressed Rhys.

“...Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse...” Rhys sighed and headed back towards the Sting Rays.

“What's your plan now?” Sasha asked him.

“What other options are there?” Rhys headed around the bubble to where the foot prints were. “We're going to track him down.”

 


	17. Enter Player 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Going back in time slightly to when Rhys left Jack alone, he is still trapped within the oxygen bubble, haven given up for now on looking for a way out of it. He's been laying for quite some time, fantasying about how he's gonna kill Rhys and what he's going to do once hes free of the bubble and can finally take his revenge. While doing this, in the distance a pair of bandits approach the air bubble, spotting Jack laying on the ground. Taking advantage of his luck, Jack plays dead and lures the pair of bandits in close enough to take advantage of them, turning the tables and now owning all of their fire arms and their Moon buggy. He makes a request to the Bandits - Take him to their camp. Having no choice with guns pointed in their faces, the Bandits comply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -> "Mic" was originally supposed to be pronounced "Mick" but as I was finishing writing I realized "Mic" is also short for "Microphone" so it sounds like "Mike" and since the other Bandit is named "Mike", instead of "Mick" and "Mike", "Mike" and "Mike" totally sounds like a pair of partners in crime you'd find in this universe, haha. With that said if readers would like to pronounce "Mic" as "Mick" still, they are welcome to do so.
> 
> -> I apologize for this chapter being so short but I'm not good with time jumps within a chapter and since I would want to cut to the next scene I feel like just putting it in another chapter.

“Uuuuuugh.” Jack groaned in boredom as he laid spread out on the ground and staring directly up at the sky, watching the disgusting shape of Pandora pass by in the sky. How long has he been here like this now? How long has it been since Rhys left? If only he had an actual working watch instead of some cheesy decorative accessory.

“Nice one Jack, look at the mess you got yourself into this time.” He spoke aloud, letting anything that crossed his mind out. “On the bright side, you're not dead anymore, on the downside... You're stranded on the goddamn moon!”

He turned his head to the side and looked out over the barren dust covered wasteland. He already tried a few times to see how long he could hold his breath, but with the low gravity it made it hard to make it anywhere quickly. Unless some incredible form of luck happened, or Rhys decided to come back to him for whatever reason, he was as good as stuck here.

“When I get my fucking hands on that asshole, _if_ _I get out of here_ , I'm going to lynch him, then I'm going to strangle him, and then I'm gonna shoot his corpse for good measure.” Jack mimicked the actions as he thought about them.

Suddenly, as if the Devil himself took pity and decided to give him another chance, a stroke of that incredible luck found its way to Jack. While staring off into the distance fantasizing about how he was going to kill Rhys, something started to approach him. The sound of an engine eventually cut through the low atmosphere as a moon buggy slowly pulled up to the air bubble. They clearly saw Jack laying there, and he saw them.

“A pair of bandits, typical.” Jack smirked as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes, ready to play his cards right. “Maybe this can be a good thing.”

 

“Hey, what's that, Mic?”

“I dunno, Mike.” One of the bandits jumped down from the vehicle. “Looks like a dead guy.”

“Wonder how he died?” Mike asked, watching Mic walk into the air bubble. “I ain't see no blood or anything.”

“Is he dead? Looks awfully fresh.” Mic questioned, slowly walking up to Jack's body and looking it over. “Got some fancy looking threads on, you'd think he'd be looted by now.”

“Any guns or anything?”

“Not that I can see, no.”

“He does look awfully clean, aside from the moon dust covering 'im.” Mike remarked. “Check him, if he ain't dead shoot 'em, if he is, loot 'em.”

Mic walked even closer and gave one of Jacks legs a kick, then poked his chest a few times with the gun, pushing his head aside. While annoying, Jack kept his stiff body, trying not to give away any signs of life, just waiting for the perfect moment.

“He's dead Mike, looks like this is our lucky day.”

“Heh, looks like it is, Mic.” Mike joined Mic and looked the man over. “Thems is some fine looking threads. Hard to believe someone hasn't looted him already, though no weapons are a suspicious sign.”

“Hey Mike... This guy, take a look at him, looks kinda familiar.... I feel like I've seen his face somewhere before.”

“Nah, probably nothing.” Mike dismissed Mic. “Though his face does look odd-”

Mic looked back over Jack again, suddenly realizing what was wrong. “Ah I get it, he's wearing some sort of mask.”

“Pull it off, let's have a look at the ugly mug-”

Mic bent down to do so, bringing a hand to the edge of Jack's face.

“Aaaaaaaand That's close enough!” Jack's eyes suddenly shot open, startling the bandits, Mike stumbled back while Mic was helpless to Jack's attack, being taken down swiftly and loosing his gun to the man. Jack pinned him down with one foot while quickly looking the gun over to see how it works, a rifle of some sorts.

Mike froze when he heard a click sound as he attempted to retreat to the buggy.

“Ah, ah, ah... Just where do you think you're going, buddy?” Jack shifted now to put pressure on Mic's neck, slowly choking him as he turned slightly to aim the gun at Mike. “If you know what's good for you, I suggest you get your sorry ass back here and away from the Vehicle.”

Mike slowly stepped back, facing Jack and putting his hands up in the air. He was clearly trembling. “L-Look man we don't want no trouble but-”

“Yeah I don't want any trouble either, but we can't always have everything going our way, can we.” Jack cut him off and cocked the gun. “Get over here.” He demanded Mike move to the location Jack requested.

Mike, with some motivation of Jack shooting the ground next to him, quickly scampered to the location. Jack shoved off of Mic, also telling him to go stand next to Mike. He stood straighter now, holding the rifle with both hands and starting to pacing back and forth in front of the pair.

“We...We really don't want any trouble.” Mike spoke up again. “We sees a dead body, we loot it. It's a simple life.”

“Can it, I don't care.” Jack snapped back. “Your voice is annoying and you talking is disrupting my thoughts.”

“W-what are you going to do with us?” Mic asked.

“Kills us probably.” Mike responded.

“I'm not going to kill you.” Jack replied, slightly annoyed.

The pair sighed in relief.

“Not yet, anyway.”

They stiffened up again.

 

Jack stopped his pacing and eventually turned to face them. “Now then, you two are bandits, right?” Jack addressed them, they nodded in return. “Good, and given the fact you two haven't killed each other, I can assume you're from the same bandit camp, correct?” They nodded once more. “So, that means there is _more_ of you, and you must have some source of power, weapons, guns, money, loot, all of that.” They remained silent.

Jack smirked, looking over at their buggy. “Nice ride you have there.”

“Thank- OW.” Mike slapped Mic for actually mistaking Jack's comment as a compliment.

“I was gonna ask which one of you do I have to shoot for it, but I really should just go ahead shoot your friend there, that's no way to treat you.” Jack smirked.

“That's what I always said! Mike needs to work on his people mana-”

_Bang!_

“I wasn't being serious you moron.” Jack scowled back at the man he just shot in the leg as he fell to the ground screaming in pain. “Now your friend is going to have to carry you back to the buggy, you big baby. Or, if he prefer, I could shoot you somewhere else to ease the pain of the leg.”

“Mic you idiot.” Mike scolded him as he bent down to help the whimpering man up and lead him over to the buggy. “What do you want from us?” He looked back at Jack.

“I want your ride for one, but more than that.” Jack headed around to the buggy, checking the trunk. It was full of loot the two of them had collected today. A automatic rifle and a small hand pistol stood out to him. He took both. “Don't think on trying to grab any of the other weapons and take me out with them.” He stated as he closed the trunk and climbed up into the driver's seat, forcing the other two men to get into the passengers spot. “You will both die if you try to pull anything like that, so don't say I didn't warn you.”

“Looks like you've got us tied and forced into a corner here, mister.” Mike shrugged.

“Damn right I do, and you're going to do everything I tell you to do, or you're just gonna end up dead a lot quicker if you don't.” Jack continued to threaten them. “Now then, everything seems to be in order... I have a request for you.”

“What's that?”

“I want you, to take me to your bandit camp.” Jack smiled.

“Do you have a death wish?” Mike questioned him.

“ _Do you?_ ” Jack shot back, making the man aware he wasn't happy with the backtalk.

“I don't mean anything by that.” Mike put his hands up in defense as a response to the gun that was suddenly being aimed at him. “I can bring you to the camp but I can't exactly say if you'll be able to just waltz right in and pal around with everyone.”

“I'm not looking to make friends.” Jack rolled his eyes.

“...What do you want then? The loot?”

“ _More than that._ ”

“...Listen, you won't survive if you go there, even with us in tow. You can't use us as hostages or something, they'd be just as eager to shoot us as you are.” Mike really didn't understand what Jack would want with the camp.

“I'm not going to make peace, or to steal all the loot.” Jack explained. “I have my reasons, and I hate when people question those reasons. So I suggest you stop talking now, shut the fuck up, and give me the directions to the camp, or I shoot your friend's other leg.”

Mike sighed heavily, looking over at his friend who pleaded with him to listen to the man. “Alright fine, you're a man on a mission and I'm in no position to argue here...” He pointed ahead over the dust dunes. “Start heading back south, it's a bit of a drive from here but you'll eventually reach the camp.”

“ _Thank you._ ” Jack replied in a mocking tone, and started the Buggy's engine, heading off in the direction he was told.

 


	18. Hail to the King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack is correctly lead to the Bandit camp where he leaves quite the impression, taking down the Bandit King and taking his place. Now in control of the bandit camp, he prepares them for an attack. His plans are slowly coming together and set into motion.

“How much further?” Jack asked looking over at Mike who was tending to Mic's wounds. “We've been driving for well over an hour now, and all I'm seeing is nothing but moon, rocks, dust, and more fucking rocks.”

“I told you it's a bit of a drive, Mic and I were on a scouting mission so we strayed away from the camp a fair bit.” Mike replied. “It shouldn't be too much further though.”

“Listen, if I waste ten more minutes with this bullshit and we don't find anything within those ten minutes, I'm killing the both of you for wasting my time.” Jack spoke up. “And you better not be fucking misleading me either, cause I told you I'll kill you for that too.”

“I-I'm not!” Mike pleaded with Jack. “You have to trust me, sir. I'm a man of my word. The camp's just really far away...”

“Yeah, for your sake you better hope we're almost there.” Jack continued.

“You really need to chill out man-”

A gun was put up against Mike's head, for the 10th time now during this ride, making Mike question if Jack was actually ever going to shoot him. He kinda wished Jack would do it and get all of this over with honestly. Normally you'd tell a man was bluffing by now, but Jack had a certain tone that even now, caused Mike to keep his mouth shut and not question how many times Jack had threatened him without doing anything. He simply sighed, removing his hands from the bandages around Mic's leg and look back at Jack.

“Sorry, I didn't mean it that way, I was just saying that-”

“I don't care what you were saying, you really need to learn to shut the fuck up, y'know that? You talk to much.” Jack sneered. “I've changed my mind, five minutes and then you get this bullet to the skull.”

“Sorry... Sorry...” Mike replied, relaxing once more as Jack removed the gun and went back to focusing on the road ahead.

 

A huge sigh of relief washed over both him and Mic as they spotted a familiar gang sign carved into a rock. “Take a left here” He instructed Jack, pointing at the rock. “That's one of ours.”

“Ah, well aren't you lucky.” Jack smirked, turning the wheel and following the hidden path up towards a cave in the mountains. “Real same, I was looking forward to watching your brains splatter everywhere. There's still a chance for that to happen though.”

“I thought you said if we brought you here, you'd let us live?” Mike questioned Jack.

“I lied, really you thought I meant that?” Jack laughed. “You two are as expendable to me as a cup of coffee. Enjoy your time alive, the minute I don't need you anymore, that's when you panic.”

Mike and Mic looked at each other, then out towards the pathway ahead again, glad to be home.

“This is just a passage.” Mike continued on. “Up ahead you should run into a gate, you'll have to honk to get their attention, but that's when it starts to get tricky. As I said earlier, you can't just waltz in there. They'll ask you for the passcode.”

“Of which you'll give to me.” Jack stated.

“Yeah, but then they will notice that you're with us, and they will question you.” Mike replied. “How do you plan on dealing with that?”

“You sure they won't value you as hostages?” Jack questioned.

“Positive. I mean, we're bandits, no one really cares for each other unless you're close like me and Mic are.... Or if your a high value target like our king.” Mike explained. “Me and Mic are just a couple of lowly scouts, they could care less if we dropped dead. All they want from us is the loot.”

“Of course, typical bandits.” Jack sighed and slowly rolled up to the gate, leaning on the horn, waiting for the camp to respond. “What's the password?”

“Sugarplum.”

Jack snickered. “S-sugarplum? What kind of bandit password is that-”

“A smart one.” Mike shrugged. “Most bandits don't like the girly stuff so they never guess out passwords.”

“Wow bandits are stupid.” Jack turned and looked at Mike and Mic. “Listen, two of you keep your mouths shut during this, okay? One word, no, one sound from either of you, and your both dead.”

“Yes sir.” They both said in unison.

 

“Oi, whats the password?” Another bandit who was guarding the wall called out to them.

“Sh-s...Sugarplum!” Jack struggled to keep a straight face when calling that out.

“Alrights, lets have a look at you.” The top half of the gate opened and 3 bandits stood with fire arms, looking down at the vehicle. “Hold on a minute, what do we have here...”

“I got two of your boys here.” Jack pointed out. “Let me in, I have a deal to make.”

“You can keep em.” The bandits replied to him. “We ain't want no traitors, or traders here.”

“Damn, you guys are cold.” Jack replied, realizing Mike was right about them not caring if the two scouts were missing or in danger. “So I guess that means I get to keep the ten grand in loot they have?”

“Ten grand!?” The three bandits on the gate looked at each other, before suddenly scattering, and the gate starting to rise. “Alright let em in! Let em in!”

“Wow, pathetic.” Jack sighed and pulled through the gates, the heavy iron slamming down behind him once he was on the other side.

 

The camp was run of the mill, standard for a bandit camp. Maybe they were a bit more populated and richer than most, but nothing special. It was mostly based in old abandoned buildings and scrap threw together in shabby shelters. Armed guards walked around the outskirts of the walls, as other bandits ran about. A few gunshots were heard and some cheering, followed by a cuss as someone shot one of their own by accident, but no one really cared much. It disgusted Jack how these bandits functioned, and it sickened him knowing he failed in wiping them out and this was what ran the horrible wastelands of Pandora and Elpis... If all went according to plan however, perhaps this would be his chance to finally change all of that for good.

“Alright step out of the buggy.” A bandit walked up to them, motioning with his rifle for the 3 men to get out. They did so, and 3 more bandits walked up, checking them out, and examining the vehicle.

“Leave it to Mike and Mic to bring in a bloody outsider.” One of the commented, giving the boys a shove. “You two are always causing trouble.”

They didn't speak, for fear of Jacks threat.

“So, what business do you have here?” The first Bandit who approached them questioned Jack.

“That depends on what you have to offer me.” Jack replied, quickly shifting to conceal the hand pistol he had, now hidden under his jacket. “I'm looking for a very specific set of things.”

“Care to elaborate on that?” The bandit asked, motioning for the guards to come up and do a clean sweep, confiscating the other two guns Jack had, and cleaned out the buggy.

“Not yet, no.” Jack replied.

“Hey, this ain't no where near ten grand.” One of the bandits pointed out.

Jack put his hands up as 4 guns were now pointed at him. “What gives?” The main bandit questioned.

“Okay, I lied a little bit, but you have to understand I really needed to get in here, guys.” Jack smiled, remaining completely calm.

“What the FUCK are you doing, outsider?” The bandit demanded answers from Jack now. “What brings you here and what plan are you concocting. You think we're stupid? We're not. What do you want.”

Jack sighed. “Alright, I wanna talk to your king.”

All of the bandits laughed.

“The king ain't got no time for outsiders like you.” The bandit replied. “Now, you lied to us, and have nothing to offer us. Stop wasting your time and take your ten second head start, before we start shooting. One. Two-”

“Wait!” Jack stopped him from counting, lowering his hands now and approaching him slightly. “Wait, wait... I do have something else... I wanted to talk to your king cause I wanted to join you guys!”

They laughed once more. “Why would we want a random outsider to join us?”

“I captured those two schmucks and made my way into here on my own, did I not?” Jack pointed over his shoulder at Mike and Mic.

The bandit looked at them, than back at Jack. “I can see someone who's not experienced with this kind of thing feeling proud about that – but in reality... Those two are morons.” He shook his head. “That ain't enough to convince us to let you into our camp.”

“Oh it's not?” Jack started thinking on his feet, observing the enemies around him. “Well, I think I know what will convince you of my worth.”

“Oh really? And what's tha-” The guard dropped to his knees holding his crotch in agony. Jack went for a nut shot.

 

This naturally prompted the others to open fire, but Jack was quick, and he was smart. Having punched the first bandit in the dick, he also grabbed his shield in the process, applying it to himself and getting enough headway to take the sudden bullet fire. He quickly reached for his concealed hand gun and managed to land three perfect headshots on the remaining guards. They all dropped dead, leaving Mic and Mike in awe.

 

“Damn, am I good or what!?” Jack exclaimed, making a little victory motion and then turning back to the bandit that was still in pain on the ground. “So, about that meeting with the king.”

“Damn you...” The bandit squeaked out as he watched Jack confiscate the nearby rifle, and aimed it at him.

“Seeings how you can't walk, I'll enlist my two morons over there to help me.” Jack lined the barrel of the rifle up to the mans head, and didn't hesitate in taking the shot. He watched the now half headed body fall limp, and slump over on the ground.

The noise alerted the rest of the bandit camp's settlers, and they all turned towards the clearing Jack was standing in to see what was going on. They remained silent, just staring back at Jack.

Jack frowned, feeling their gaze and looking up. “What are you all staring at? Haven't seen a good 'ol fashioned murder before?” No response. “Get out of here!” He fired the rifle at a few of them, causing the bandits to scatter, some running into the buildings, others calling out warnings or just screaming in fear.

“Well, that's certainly one way to go about it.” Mike commented, catching Jack's attention. “You're not one to fuck around, are you sir?”

“I'm not. Hopefully you've learned that by now.” Jack replied, walking back over to them. “I think I've made my presence clear. How about you two prolong your lifespan a bit more and make yourself useful, take me to the king.”

“...You're going to kill 'em, aren't you?” Mike asked.

“Duh, god you two really are stupid.” He gave him a shove with the barrel of the rifle. “Get moving.”

Mike hesitated. “I mean, normally I'd take you to the throne, but I don't think that's necessary.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Why?”

 

 

The air shattered as the sound of rapid gunfire suddenly filled it. This caused Jack to take on a defensive stance, looking around frantically for the source of it, and Mike and Mic to cower behind him for protection.

“The hell is going on-”

“So, I heard some outsider was out here killing my men!” A slightly deranged sounding voice shouted at the group. Jack followed the sound and traced it back to a figure standing up on one of the buildings. It was a midget scaver with two shot guns. “Looks like I have to put 'em in his place, eh?” The midget set off the shotguns again.

“ _Your men_?” Jack looked up at the midget, confused for a moment. “Wait a minute... Wait your not-...” A huge smile crept up on his face as he turned his head back to look at Mike and Mic. “You're not serious, are you? This guy? _This guy?_ ”

Mike and Mic only nodded.

“Oh, my god.” Jack laughed, turning back to the midget. “Alright pipsqueak let's get th- YIKES!”

The midget took advantage of Jack letting his guard down and was already shooting at him, barely clipping Jack's head with one of the shots. “Nobody kills my men but me!!!!”

“Oh so it's going to be like that is it?” Jack ducked for cover behind the moon buggy, fixing up his rifle with fresh ammo preparing to fight back. “This is too easy-”

“Hey! No hiding.”

He spoke too soon as the midget tossed a grenade into the moon buggy's seat. “Oh you've got to be kidding me.” Jack finished reloading and quickly ran away from the buggy just as the explosives went off, completely totaling the vehicle and causing Mike and Mic to scatter too. “Hey, don't you care for your assets! That was a nice ride!” Jack complained, looking back at the midget, trying to line up a shot.

“No! I have tons of these!” The midget replied, running out of ammo with his piss poor aim and resorting to just chucking the shot guns at Jack.

“What kind of fucking king are you anyway?” Jack frowned. “How you managed to control all of these people also amazes me.”

“Y'see, people respect me, they fear me.” The midget spoke, dodging Jack's pot shots and hiding behind a fire barrel.

“Why? You're not scary in the slighte- OH SHIT!” Jack barely missed being crushed by the barrel. “How the fuck-”

“I can lift more than that, you puny man!” The king explained, going to pick up a whole gas tank now. “Surrender now and I may consider recruiting you!”

“I'd rather take over for myself, thanks.” Jack responded, and landed a shot on the tank, causing gas to leak out and ignite.

“Hey! No fair!” The midget screamed quickly tossing the tank, only to have it blow up mid air, raining fire bits down on everyone. “You have a gun, I don't!”

“You threw you guns, idiot!” Jack was getting tired of this now. “You're just throwing shit at me, a gun is going to win here!” He ducked behind the beam of a building as more random junk got tossed at him.

“If your gun guarantees you win, why are you hiding, huh?” The midget stopped tossing stuff and started to walk up to the beam Jack was hiding behind. “Come out and face me like a man! Stop hiding! You wanna be a bandit, earn it! Come at me! Fight me! Fig-”

“I don't want to be a bandit....”

_Bang._

Skull and brain splattered everywhere.

 

“ _I want to be king._ ” Jack stepped out from the beam, blowing the smoke off his gun. “Never get close to someone when you're in a fight and unarmed, you literally loose your head.” He smirked, looking down at the midget's body.

“I'll be damned, he killed 'em.” Mike spoke up.

“I'm impressed.” Mic commented.

“Oh c'mon, you act like that was actually some kind of challenge?” Jack looked back at the two of them. “Like, this has to be some sort of joke or something, right? There's no way that guy was the king.”

“He was the king, we were afraid of him because of his incredible strength...” Mike commented. “Plus he killed our former king, so we automatically respected him because you obviously must have some kind of skills to take out the king.”

“You haven't even seen true skills yet.” Jack commented. “So, that nutjob is out of the way, I guess that means I'm your new king now.”

“That's how it works...” Mike replied. “I can't believe you pulled it off, but...” Mic and Mike bowed to Jack. “We are now at your service, your highness.”

Jack smiled. “Huh, I guy could quickly get used to that kinda treatment.”

 

He picked up the midget's body, dragging it up to a small platform in the middle of the bandit camp, tossing it on the ground as the other bandits slowly gathered around to see the fall of their former king. Jack stepped on the corpse, standing straight and addressing the crowd.

“Listen up, you dirty, filthy, bunch of bandits. You see this body? That's your sorry excuse for a king, and seeings how you're all a bunch of sheep, I now own you. I am your new king, me, Handsome Jack. You work for me now, everything you own is mine now. You do as I say, and if anyone dares to disobey me? Well...” He looked at a group of people close to him in the crowd, he didn't hesitate to shoot one of them, startling the others. “Do I make myself clear?”

The whole bandit camp suddenly bowed down to him, paying their respects.

“I'd say you've taken over pretty well.” Mike said. “We never had someone leave such an... Impression before.”

“Yeah, better get used to it, cause a lot of things is going to change around here.” Jack turned to him to speak. “Normally I'd kill every last one of your dirty rotten bandits, strangling you with my bare hands, but lucky for your sorry asses, I'm in a bit of a bind right now, and you can all be of value to me.”

“What kind of bind are you in, sir?” Mic spoke up now.

“Y'see the big planet in the sky, Pandora? I need to get back there.” Jack stated as he pointed up to the planet.

“Why would you want to go there? It's nothing but a barren wasteland of a planet.” Mike questioned.

“Oh I know, all the more reason why I want to get back there, so, how many more people do I have to shoot before I start getting some answers.” Jack titled his head to the side, waiting for Mike's response.

“Please don't kill anymore.” Mike frowned, and then looked off to the side in thought for a moment before addressing Jack again. “There may be one way to get back there, I think Concordia still has transportation via the fast-travels.”

“Great, so I'm going to Concordia then.”

“But... You're a bandit King, you simply can't walk into a high defense, high security place like that. Trust me, lots of bandits try to loot the place, and either end up locked up, or killed in the process.”

“Well now you see why I wanted to become king.” Jack smiled, turning back to the crowd. “Gather your weapons, get some armor, and prepare the buggies... That's an order!”

The bandits tripped over each other as they quickly acted to follow the commands of their new leader. Everyone was still a bit confused and lost, but what the king said goes, so they followed regardless.

“What are you planning?” Mike had to ask.

Jack chuckled and walked up to Mike, putting a casual arm around him, and grinning as he spoke. “ _I'm taking my revenge._ ”

 


	19. Bad Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and his friends have been following Jack's tracks for quite some time now, but are suddenly at a loss when the trail ends. Discussing what to do next, Rhys takes note of the symbols on a rock that indicates a bandit camp. Fearing the worse he insists on following the sign and locating the camp. His friend's advise against it at first, but eventually tag along. When they get to the camp they find it empty and deserted, all for a hand full of bandits, one of which ambushes them. They tried to explain their situation but the bandit wouldn't cooperate. Another quake hits allowing opportunity to turn the tables, and finally they get some answers out of the bandit. Before they finish the full story about what happened when Jack came to the bandit camp, Rhys is interrupted by a distress call on his Echo. It's Moxxi, calling for help. Concordia was being attacked. Handsome Jack had breached the cities security with his army of bandits, and he's looking for one specific thing... Rhys.

“Rhys, we should give up.” Sasha addressed him once the group had pulled over to take a break from driving and get their bearings.

“We can't just stop now.” Rhys looked back to her. “We need to find Jack and take care of him before he causes any problems.”

“Maybe if we're lucky he got killed by some Scavs.” Fiona suggested. “What about the quakes, Rhys? We're wasting time out here looking for Jack.”

Rhys frowned at Fiona. “The quakes are an important issue too, yes, but no point in saving Elpis from exploding, if all it's residents are dead because there's a killer on the loose.”

“A killer you set loose, might I add.” Fiona shot back, getting a scowl from Rhys now.

“I didn't mean to and you know that, I wasn't thinking.” Rhys tried to defend himself. “He got into my head, and I feel for his lies, I'm done with that now though. I just want to find him, dispose of him, find the source of the quakes, stop them, and then go back home.”

“We've been driving for hours though.” Vaughn cut in. “And I hate to say it, but our trails run dry. The Moonzoomy tracks stop here, and thanks to the fork in the road, we don't know which way they went.”

“What about those gunshots we heard awhile back? You think it was related to Jack?” Rhys questioned.

“If it was I really hope it was them shooting him dead.” Fiona remarked. “Those were over an hour ago as well, Rhys. Any bandit with a brain in their heads at all would of fled the scene by now.”

“So that's it then, we just write Jack off for now?” Rhys asked, hand twitching on the ignition of the Stingray's controls. “What, so we head back to Concordia, break the news to everyone that Jack's roaming around and possibly killing people, and then hope for the best?”

“Do you have any better ideas?” Sasha asked him.

“No.”  
“Then yes, hoping for the best is all we can do.” She shrugged.

 

“There's got to be more to it then that.” Rhys clenched his fist. “Yes it's my fault this happened, and so it's my responsibility to bring him in.”

“We're sorry Rhys, but there's not much else we can do about it right now.” Vaughn reached over to pat his friend on the shoulder. “We should head back.”

As Vaughn spoke to him, something caught Rhys eye close by. He stepped off his Stingray and walked over to the rock by the mountains, at the start of the fork in the road. He knelt down and took a closer look.

“What is it?” Fiona asked joining him.

“There's markings on these rocks here... Some sort of symbol.” Rhys observed, pointing them out to Fiona. “I don't suppose Kragoons know how to write?”

Fiona's eyes lit up as she took notice of the markings on the rocks. “I've seen similar ones like this around Elpis while exploring.” She explained. “The symbol is foreign to me, but I know what the rest of the markings stand for. That's a clue left by a bandit clan. Normally it leads towards a camp.”

Rhys smirked, feeling that they had just picked up the chase once again. “Now if I were Handsome Jack and stranded on the moon, and came across indications of a Bandit Camp, where would I go?”

“Back to Concorida?” Sasha joked.

“If only it were that easy.” Rhys replied, standing up straight again. “Well-”

“Don't tell me you're thinking what I think you're thinking.” Fiona also stood up and addressed Rhys.

“The trails gone cold, and this is our only clue.” Rhys responded to her. “It's either this, or heading back to Concordia.”

“Jokes aside, Concordia is the best option. The safer one anyway.” Fiona continued. “Didn't you hear me, those symbols lead to bandit camps, as in, large areas overrun with bandits. Lots of guys with lots of guns.”

“Wait, what were you planning on Rhys?” Sasha butted in. “Just walking into a bandit camp and demanding to know where Jack is?”

“Pretty much yeah, except, more stealthy.” Rhys said.

“You're literally going to get yourself killed!” Sasha snapped back at him. “We don't have the kinda fire power to just take on a bandit camp like that. Why don't we just head back to Concordia and think of a different approach.”

“Listen, you guys don't have to be doing this with me.” Rhys started to speak as he walked back to his Stingray and mounted it. “This is my problem and I intend to fix it, but on the off chance Jack did make his way to a bandit camp there's no telling what he could be planning. I'm not willing to take the risk of allowing him to come up with a plan of attack, and us just sitting at Concordia waiting for him to attack.” Rhys started up his ride. “You guys can head back to Concordia if you want, maybe that's for the best. You guys can continue working on the solution to the Quakes, and I'll go take care of Jack.”  
“Rhys, you have to think about what you're saying!” Sasha tried to stop him but Rhys just kick started the engine of his Stingray and headed off following the direction of the symbol on the rock.

 

Sasha sighed and turned back to Vaughn and Fiona, who also knew that Rhys was rushing too quickly into things. They all exchanged a look, and then started up their own Stingrays as well.

“Rhys! Wait up!” Sasha called after him taking the lead.

“We're a team, you can't just leave us like this and expect to get away with it!” Vaughn followed up.

“Yeah, if you're gonna get yourself killed stupidly, we've at least have to be there to watch!” Fiona smirked, following up behind the other two. “Of course we are going to try and keep you from dying in the first place.”

Rhys looked back over his shoulder and saw his friends following up behind him. He smiled returning his focus back on the road ahead.

 

Eventually they came to the end of the road, with a small exposed wall sticking out of some broken ship parts and rocks.

Fiona pulled up beside Rhys. “That looks like the entrance to a camp if I've ever seen one.”

“So we've found the right place.” Rhys stated, getting off his Stingray and starting to walk towards the large gate before Fiona caught his arm. “Hey, what are you doing? You still can't just walk up to a bandit camp.”

“Why not?” Rhys questioned here. “We're just asking a few questions, and then we'll be moving on. I just want to see if my hunch is correct.”

“Oh yeah that's rich, you knock on the door and get instantly shot in the face.” Fiona stated. “Maybe we can sneak around the side and peek into the camp and see what's going on.”

“Do you really think that would work?” Rhys looked at her with a bit of concern. “I mean, if we get caught we'd just get shot in the face then too.”

“Alright that's fair, but do you want instantly shot in the face, or caught and having a chance to run shot in the face?” Fiona shot back.

“...You make a compelling argument.” Rhys noted, he motioned for Vaughn and Sasha to follow as he and Fiona went with the second plan, scouting around the side of the camp.

 

“There's a break in the rocks up ahead, I think we can climb up and stand on the wall and see what we're dealing with.” Fiona whispered to the rest of the group as she took lead and headed for the rocks she described.

“So like, what's the plan if we do get caught?” Rhys asked her.

“Try not to die?” Fiona looked over her shoulder at him.

“Great, I'll remember that with the barrel of a gun stuck to my head.” Rhys rolled his eyes. “I hope you know what you're doing, Fi.”

“Trust me with this alright, it's much safer.” Fiona responded. “I'm a Vault Hunter now remember? I've done way more dangerous stuff than this. Sometimes you can't just walk up and take what you need from a Vault.”

“I guess you're forgetting you were a con-artist than too, right?” Rhys jived as he offered Fiona a boost up onto the rocks.

“Well, I can't lie, my previous work does prove useful in a lot of situations.” She smiled back at Rhys, holding out her hand to pull him up.

 

Rhys reached down to help Sasha and Vaughn up now too, then he looked back over the other side of the rocks and the wall, gazing into the bandit camp. It was what he expected. Dirty, weapons and junk everywhere. Full of blood and bullet holes and few bodies left to rot. But the odd thing was, it was empty. Not a bandit in sight, and what was even weirder was it was quiet. Too quiet.

“It's deserted?” Fiona sounded a bit confused, standing up straighter now and walking a little ways down the wall to get a better view. “That's a first, most bandi camps I came across were chock full of guys.”

“Looks like your hunch was wrong Rhys.” Sasha looked to him. “Jack's clearly not here. Guess we'll have to keep looking.”

“...I don't know Sasha, I don't... Feel right. Something's wrong.” Rhys frowned, trying to figure out why such a large camp would just be left abandoned like this. “Are those bodies fresh? You think maybe he was already here?”

“I'm sure we would know by now if he was here and left. There would be some sort of sign.” Sasha tried to reassure Rhys. “I still think those new powers of yours are what's causing some of your problems.”

“It's not my powers, to be quite honest I'm starting to get used to them and I don't feel like this when I'm using my powers.” Rhys turned to her. “It's almost like my fight or flight is kicking, as if something bad's going to happen, as if we're being watched.”

“FREEZE, OUTSIDERS. DO NOT MOVE.”

“...You had to keep talking, didn't you?” Sasha rolled her eyes at Rhys, complying with the bandit that had just ambushed all of them.

 

The bandit had popped up in front of Fiona startling her, aiming a gun at her, and also threatening her friends. He looked over them for a moment and then spoke. “You outsiders best have a damn good reason for trespassing into our camp!”

“Your camp, there's no one else here!” Vaughn pointed out, but then cowering a bit as the gun was then aimed at him.

“Drop your weapons.” The bandit demanded them, they complied, tossing their weapons on the ground. Rhys kept his baton holstered, hoping the bandit wouldn't realize it as a weapon. “Now, what's your reason for coming here!?”

“We're looking for someone.” Rhys stepped up cautiously.

“Who are you looking for?” The bandit tilted his head in curiosity.

“A man. A little bit taller than me, dark hair, wears a mask.” Rhys briefly described Jack's appearance.

“...A mask you say?” The bandit cocked his gun. “If you guys are here to kill our king, he's gone.”

“Your king?” Rhys questioned.

“Yes, our leader. Our new one anyway, he strolled in here a few hours ago and completely took over.” The bandit explained, and then paused for a moment. “Come to think of it, his face did look a bit off. You said the guy you're looking for wears a mask right?”

“...A man with a mask came in here and took over?” Rhys tried to get the information correct. “I take it those bodies over there are because of him?”

“Yeah, he was real good with a gun.” The bandit replied.

“So he did come through here...” Rhys was worried now, wondering what other damage Jack would cause before they caught him. “Tell me, where is now? Which way did he go!?”

“Like hell I'm going to tell you that!” The bandit now aimed at Rhys. “Why are you looking for 'em anyway? You going to kill him?”

“We need to find him, and stop him.” Rhys explained. “He's a very dangerous man.”

“Yeah, well so am I.” The Bandit responded, getting closer to Rhys. “And you think I'm just gonna stand by and let you damn outsiders come in and kill another king in, two in one day, then you are mistaken!” He lined the barrel of his gun up with Rhys's head. “So with that said, any last wo-”

 

The bandit struggled to keep steady as another quake hit, shaking the area. There was the sound of a loud explosion in the distance. “What the hell-”

While distracted by the chaos, Fiona quickly acted, knocking the bandit off his feet and taking his gun. She aimed it at him, keeping him in place as she motioned for the others to pick up their own weapons. The quake stopped, but faint gunfire continued in the distance.

“Well now, it looks like you're in no position to be uncooperative.” Fiona stated, staring the bandit down while keeping the barrel of the gun to his head. “Are you going to tell us where your so called 'king' took off to, or are you going to pull an honor card?”

The bandit looked back up at her, he had been bested, and he certainly didn't want to die. “Okay, you got me! I'll tell you everything, don't shoot!”

Rhys used his left hand with his powers and forced the Bandit to his feet. “What happened here, and where did 'the king', go?”

The bandit started in. “Y'see, it happened so fast, but awhile ago today Mike and Mic were brought in, kidnapped by an outsider. He tricked us into letting him inside, and once he got in, he wanted to join us. 'Course we're not really the type to take in outsiders, so when we turned him down he just started shooting everyone! He demanded to speak to our former king, and when the king came knocking he went and killed him! By bandit rules, that made this outsider our new king. He's real crazy, like you said, a dangerous man. Didn't hesitate to shoot anyone who didn't do what he told them to.”

“That's defiantly Jack...” Rhys noted. “What happened then? Did he just kill everyone and leave, are you the only one left?”

“No, no! He was smart, said he needed us for something, so he didn't just kill all of us, though I bet he could if he wanted to.” The bandit continued. “As soon as he took his place as the new king, he started bossing us around, telling us his game plan. Next thing I know he's got us rounding up all our supplies, everything we got, and most of our men. Only a handful stayed behind, they're guarding the other sides.”

“Why was he doing that?” Rhys questioned. “Where was he heading with an army of bandits?”

“He was going to attack co-”

 

Suddenly Rhys's Echo booted up, an emergency call from Moxxi. Rhys brought his arm up to display the call. “Hey Moxxi, what's u-”

Loud gunfire came over the intercom, the small holographic image of Moxxi glitched out slightly as she called out to Rhys. “Rhys! I don't know where you and your friends are but you have to get back to Concorida!” Moxxi exclaimed over the screams of the citizens and explosions behind her.

The others instantly gathered around Rhys to see what was wrong, all of them suddenly worried by the noise and Moxxi's plea. “W-what? Moxxi what's going on? Did something happen because of the quakes?”

“T-that wasn't a normal quake, hon!” Moxxi responded. “That was the result of an explosion! Concordia is-”

“Outta the way, _Boobiewise_ -” a voice cut into the call.

“Moxxi!?” Rhys called out as she was suddenly attacked.

Moxxi let out a scream as she was knocked aside by an unknown figure. Rhys could catch a glimpse of her struggling and trying to fight back as the figure took a hold of her and stuck a gun to her head. He then bent down to gaze into the camera of the Echo communication, a sinister grin plaster across his face as he held Moxxi hostage.

 

“Ah well, if it isn't my good buddy Rhys. How you doing cupcake?” It was Jack, he was back in Concordia.

“Jack! What the hell are you doing!?” Rhys growled at him, feeling helpless as being so far away all he could do was watch the chaos.

“Why, isn't it obvious?” Jack smiled. “I'm taking back what should have been rightfully mine in the first place!” He then took note of the location behind Rhys. “Oh hey, I see you found my new base. I guess that means you're not here though, what a shame, I was really looking forward to a good old fashion reunion.”

“Let Moxxi go!” Rhys demanded.

“Oh and what, let go of my only bargaining piece? Gee what a great idea.” Jack responded sarcastically. “If you want her, _you're gonna have to come and get her._ ” Jack's tone became a bit more serious and sinister with that statement.

“What do you want!?” Rhys questioned Jack, rage building up inside of him.

“You, here, now.” Jack replied, gesturing to Rhys through the screen and then back at the bar in Concordia. “I'm tired of playing games and loosing, so the kid gloves are coming off now. I'm calling you out Rhys, and this time I'm determined to win.”

“And what if I don't show up?” Rhys asked, trying to figure out his options.

“ _You will._ ” Jack sneered and reminded Rhys of the gun he had held to Moxxi's head. “You will because you're playing hero now Rhys. You came to Elpis to save it's people, so come and do your damn job. You have one hour, and if you're not here within the hour, let's just say slutface here is going to blow a tit.” Jack then chuckled contently, and turned the gun on the screen, firing it and ending the Echo communication.

 

Rhys was horrified, staring at the blank screen of the Echo for a few seconds. The others had overheard everything, and were also speechless as well.

“What are we going to do?” Sasha asked, looking back to Rhys.

“Jack's attacking Concordia with an army of bandits behind him, there's no way we can take him on alone.” Vaughn expressed concern.

“Rhys... We have to do something, he has Moxxi.” Fiona stated.

“...There's only one thing we can do.” Rhys sighed and turned his Echo off, facing the group. “If Jack wants me, then he's going to have to fight for me.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before people ask about my poor sense of humor, "boobiewise" is my bad attempt at Jack comparing Moxxi to Pennywise.


	20. A Flaw In The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and his friends return to Concordia to comply with Jack's demands in order to spare Moxxi's life. The only option at this point is to turn Rhys in. Of course Jack is infamous to never keeping to his word, so once he has the group helpless and at his mercy, instead of Trading Rhys's life for Moxxi's, hes planning on killing all of them right there in the Merrif's office. However, shooting someone is much more effective than attempting to rip out their throat, Jack learns this the hard way after loosing his temper from Rhys insulting him. This gives Rhys's friends a chance to free Moxxi, removing any control Jack had against them. They are now free to escort Moxxi for saftey, and Rhys stays to deal with Jack properly this time. They have him bested, and Fiona is ready to kill him, however Rhys has other Plans for Jack instead. Pubically shaming him for his misdeeds seems rather amusing to Rhys.

Rhys and his friends pulled up to the main entrance of Concordia. There was a bunch of bandit equipment parked outside. There was still screaming, explosions and gunshots coming from inside the walls of the city. Some parts of it appeared to be on fire, and the front entrance was left wide open with it's metal gates on the other side, dented by an explosion.

 

“Oh my god, what has he done?” Rhys spoke as he took note of all the damage caused by Jack's attack.

“I didn't know Handsome Jack had it in him to be a terrorist.” Sasha remarked. “I mean that said, I'm not exactly surprised by all of this.”

“I don't understand. I get trying to force you to face him and all of that, but this really is a bit much.” Fiona spoke, looking towards Rhys. “What happened with Concordia to make him so bitter towards it and it's residents?”

“Jack has some... History here, from my understanding.” Rhys replied to her. “I have a feeling this is about more than just me.”

“We left Loader Bot and Gortys at the bar, do you think they're okay?” Vaughn asked worried.

“I'm sure they can hold their own, at least LB can that is.” He tried to get Vaughn focused back on their main issue, convinced LB would protect Gortys and the others.

“I hope...” Vaughn sighed and followed the group as they walked into Concordia.

 

“Hey, be careful.” Fiona spoke up alerting everyone. “Bandits are literally everywhere. We need a came plan.” She motioned for them to huddle up and hide behind a beam, as a group of bandits strolled by them.

“Do we kill everyone while trying to find Jack?” Sasha asked.

“What about Moxxi? If Jack knows we're here and shooting his men, he'll just shoot her instead.” Rhys pointed out. “He's holding her hostage, and hostages are used to make your target do what you want, he has the upper hand on this one.”

“...What if we turn you in?” Fiona looked over to Rhys.

“What!?” Vaughn and Sasha looked at her in shock.

“Fi, Jack will kill him!” Sasha argued.

“I cannot just ditch my bro like that in good conscious.” Vaughn added.

“No, Fiona's right. That's our best option. Let Jack know I'm here, and locate him as fast as we can.” Rhys agreed with Fiona's suggestion. “Of course, I'm not planning to just let him shoot me, so you guys will have my back, right?”

The group nodded in agreement.

“Alright then, our main goal right now is to save Moxxi, once we free her, we'll think about how to deal with Jack and the bandits.” Rhys instructed them on the plan. “Follow my lead, try not to get shot.”

 

Rhys stepped out from behind the support beam, coughing loudly and making himself known to the nearby group of bandits. “Uh excuse m-” Rhys put his hands up instantly as they all aimed their guns at him.

He nodded to his friends to let the bandits know they were with him. They rearranged themselves to keep an eye on the whole group, confiscating any weapons they had. Once cleared, and confirming they had the right guy, the bandits started to walk the group through Concordia.

The inside was even worse than the outside. So much was destroyed, and so many people were dead. It almost was unrecognizable from the original city they had left. The bandits seemed to have been given free roam of the city, allowed to shoot and pillage whatever they wanted, so long as they didn't kill anyone who looked like Rhys and his friends.  
The group as they walked kept an eye out for their robot friends, but nothing turned up. Moxxi's bar was completely destroyed, as well as empty. Rhys only hopped that his idea of LB was correct, and that he had gotten away with Gortys safely before things had gotten too bad. He really hoped Jack didn't kidnap them as well. Gortys could be a powerful weapon in the hands of a guy like him.

 

The bandits brought the group to the center of town to the glass elevator. They walked them aboard and then hit the button, buzzing an intercom.

“This better be good.” Jack's grim voice came through the speakers of the device.

“We've found em, sir.” The bandit replied. “He's got a metal arm just like you said.”

“Oh wow, consider me impressed. He actually has a pair.” Jack mocked in response, then went back to his serious tone. “Send them up.”

The bandit pressed another button and the doors of the lift shut behind them. The elevator slowly started to ascend.

“So, before we brings you into the king, let's set a few ground rules, shall we?” The main bandit addressed the group. “We ain't allowed to shoot the cyborg, however, any funny business from any of your friends, and we can shoot whoever we feel like.”

“No funny business, got it.” Rhys confirmed, looking back at his friends who were all visibly worried, just unsure of what to do and following his lead. Their life was in his hands now.

 

The lift finally reached the top floor, doors opening automatically and the bandits unloading their cargo. Ahead of them was a long hallway which passed by various rooms such as a library and storage room. At the end was the doors to an office, a sign was hung up by it, it read “The Merrif's Office.”

The bandit reached out to open the door, as soon as he did Rhys could feel his heart rate skyrocket as he saw Moxxi sitting in the chair at the desk, restrained and held captive as Jack loomed over her, waiting for his guests to arrive.

“Hello Rhys, I've been expecting you.” Jack grinned, giving Moxxi's chair a little spin as he walked around the desk to greet the group. “I'll take it from here, go burn down some more buildings or something.” Jack dismissed his bandit guards, leaving him with Rhys and his friends.

“I'm only here for one thing Jack.” Rhys finally spoke, nodding towards Moxxi. “Let her go, then we can talk business.”

“Mmhn, let me think about that – ah, no.” Jack smirked at Rhys. “I don't just give in that easily, I'm not stupid either. You're gonna take Moxxi back, then you're gonna ambush me. That's not how the story goes.”

“How do you picture the story going then?” Rhys questioned him.

“First of all, I make sure you're disarmed so there's no risk of me being shot.” Jack stated.

“Your guards did that for you.” Rhys replied.

“Yeah, but they didn't get all of the weapons.” He walked past Rhys and stood in front of Fiona. He outstretched his hand to her. “C'mon, hand it over.”

Fiona looked back at Jack, acting confused for a moment. “I uh... I don't know what you-”

“Oh please, don't play dumb with me. I've been you guy through that whole adventure floating around inside this moron's head.” He pointed with his thumb back towards Rhys. “I know you have _a card up your sleeve_ , and I'm not taking any chances.”

Fiona scowled at him, but Jack didn't budge. He just stood there, waiting for her to comply with him.

“Fiona...” Rhys looked back at her, asking her to play along.

“...Ugh.” Fiona reached up her coat sleeve and fiddled around until something disconnected. She then pulled out a small golden pistol and handed it over to Jack.

“Thank you.” Jack said in a polite tone, but then suddenly frowned again and tossed the gun over his shoulder not caring where it went as long as it was out of Fiona's reach.

“HEY!” Fiona made a move towards Jack but quickly recoiled when he took a pistol of his own and aimed it back towards Moxxi.

“Ah-ah. There will be none of that.” He smiled, amused at how Fiona reluctantly stepped back. “Heh, y'know you're pretty cute when you're angry.”

“I am going to fucking kill you.” Fiona growled back.

Jack snickered. “Yeah, good luck with that honey.” He then walked back towards Moxxi, starting in on informing Rhys about how things were going to down. “So, here's the thing, you're playing by my rules now. That means things are going to go the way I want them to.”

“I know you want me dead.” Rhys spoke. “Spare me the details and let's just get on with this exchange.”

“Exchange?” Jack raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh what, did you think we were going to do a trade here, your life for Moxxi's? Oh no Rhys, I don't think you quite understand how I like to do things around here.” Jack flipped a small box that was located on the desk and then slammed his fist down under it.

 

A loud noise caught the group off guard and they glanced behind them as suddenly large metal bars shot up and blocked off the exit behind them. They had walked right into Jack's trap, and even worse, they were unarmed and unable to fight back.

“You tricked us again!” Rhys hissed.

“Of course I did! God you'd think you would of learned by now not to trust me” Jack smirked.

“I should of killed you when I had the chance, way back when I removed your lens!” Rhys took a defensive pose as his arm started to glow with his Seer powers.

“Oh I wouldn't do that if I were you.” Jack commented towards Rhys noticing he was setting up this powers to attack him. “If my feet come off the ground by the slighest ammount, a bullet is going straight into Moxxi's head.”

Rhys lowered his arm again, glaring back at Jack. They had to free Moxxi somehow, Jack had too much control with her still restrained.

“Why are you even doing this!?” Sasha had to step up and question him. “I understand the beef with Rhys but what did Concordia do to you?”

“The people of Concordia, and this whole goddamn moon, did a whole bunch of stuff to me.” Jack replied. “Stabbed me in the back multiple times, made me the villain I'm not as a reward for trying to save them... but it just doesn't end there.”

“What are you planning, Jack!” Rhys demanded to know.

“Here's how all this is going to work out.” Jack started to explain his motives. “First, I'm going to shoot and kill Rhys. He owes me a life for a ruined company and a crashed space station. Second, I'm gonna murder Moxxi for being a part of the group of bandits that turned on me and caused this whole mess in the first place. Third, I dispose of you guys, and the rest of these bandits, take over Concordia, the rest of Elpis, and return to my original plans to concur and take over Pandora, liberating it from the scum that currently inhabit it.”

“You can't just kill everyone on Elpis and Pandora!” Rhys spoke out.

“Oh yes I can, because there's no one who's going to stop me this time.” Jack replied. “This time, I win. Me. Handsome Jack. I'm going to clean up Pandora, and in the future everyone will thank me, things will be better off because of me, I'M GOING TO FINALLY BE THE GODDAMN _HERO_ I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE, AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME!”

“A hero doesn't kill people! You're not a hero! _You're no better than the bandits_!” Rhys shouted back at Jack.

Jack paused, he stared back at Rhys, a stare that cut through Rhys's soul like broken glass. “What did you just say to me?”

Rhys flinched, but then overlooked Jack's reaction, and responded accordingly. “ _You heard me._ ”

“No, I don't quite think I did.” Jack walked up to Rhys, closing the space between them in an attempt to intimidate them. Rhys held his ground though. Jack spoke again. “Would you care to repeat yourself? Or do you wish to retract that statement.”

“No.” Rhys glared back at him, watching Jack twitch when he denied to fix his statement. “You're no hero Jack, you never were. You're nothing but a coward and a murder! You wouldn't know what a true hero looks like if they punched you in the goddamn face!” Rhys was aware that he was basically poking the bear with a stick at this point, but he had just had enough of being bullied by Jack. “I repeat myself, you're no better, and just as worthless as a fucking _bandit_.”

Jack pulled back away from Rhys slightly, his scowl disappearing. “Oh, well I appreciate you speaking your mind Rhys.”

Rhys blinked in shock. “Wait really-”

“I WONDER IF YOU CAN STILL SPEAK AFTER I RIP YOUR GODDAMN THROAT OUT!” Jack suddenly turned on Rhys, tackling him to the ground with rage.

 

“RHYS!” his friends swarmed him about to attempt to pull Jack off of him.

Rhys gasped while struggling with Jack. “G-get Mo-Moxxi!

“But-” His friends tried to argue

“NOW.” Rhys used his strength to throw Jack off himself, and then continued to fight him, allowing his friends to carry out their orders.

Vaughn and Sasha ran over to the desk and freed Moxxi, Fiona started frantically looking around the office.

“Are you okay?” Vaughn asked Moxxi.

“Just fine now thanks to you.” Moxxi smiled slightly, then looked over at the brawl between Rhys and Jack. “He always had a short temper y'know.”

“Moxxi, we need to get out of here! Jack locked the doors.” Sasha told her.

“Right, I'm on it, just give me a spell.” Moxxi replied and reached for the control pad that Jack had activated. “I'm going to need some tools-”

“Can you re-purpose this?” Vaughn handed her the quake tracking device.

“Yes, perfect!” Moxxi took it from him and removed the back, connecting the wires to the control pad.

“Rhys, you doing okay?” Vaughn called out, but then flinched as Jack was slammed into the wall behind him. “I'll take that as a yes.”

“How long until the door's unlocked?” Rhys asked, restraining Jack against the wall and trying to tune out the cussing and screaming.

“Just a few minutes, Sugar.” Moxxi claimed. “Though, once those doors open I have a feeling we're going to be swarming with Jack's men.”

“Just leave those to me.” Rhys replied, sliding Jack off the wall and tossing him to the other side of the room.

“God dammit this is so unfair!” Jack hissed struggling to pick himself up off the floor.

“Doors opening in 3 seconds Rhys!” Moxxi informed him.

“Got it.” Rhys turned towards the door, waiting for them to open, when they did, a bunch of bandits did in fact swarm in, however it was extremely easy for Rhys to take care of them, they weren't even aware he was a Seer after all. A quick motion of the wrist was all it took to pick the bandits up and toss them out of the hallway's windows, crashing to the ground below. “ The path is clear, get Moxxi out of here.” Rhys instructed his friends, who escorted Moxxi down the hallway.

“Wait what about Jack-” Fiona stopped to turn back, aware that Rhys was staying behind to deal with him.

“I can handle him.” Rhys spoke, but then turned around to find Jack had acquired his pistol and was aiming it straight at him.

“Rhys!” Fiona stepped in, just as Jack fired.

“Son of a bitch!” Jack cried through gritted teeth, dropping his pistol and holding his right hand with his left, trying to slow the bleeding.

“Fiona...” Rhys blinked, realizing what just happened, noticing Jack's bullet barely missed the two of them.

Fiona turned back to Rhys and smiled. “He's right, I always have a trick up my sleeve.” She retracted the small golden pistol back into her jacket sleeve.

 

“I'm gonna fucking kill you, both of you.” Jack looked up from his hand. “This isn't how it was supposed to go dammit! I was supposed to finally win! Why am I always bested by a bunch of... a bunch of traitors!”

“Oh give it a rest already.” Fiona scowled at him. “It's over Jack.”

“You lost.” Rhys added. “And now you're finally going to get the punishment you deserve.”

“Oh so now you're deciding to kill me? About goddamn time, and you still can't do it yourself I see.” Jack noted Fiona was aiming at him again with her gun. “Tell me again who the coward is?”

“Still you.” Rhys reached out and lowered Fiona's arm.

“Rhys, we talked about this.” Fiona side eyed him.

“Yeah we did, and I also suggested we collect him up, did I not?” Rhys replied to her.

“Collect me up?” Jack questioned him. “What are you going to do, arrest me?”

“Yes actually-”

“Rhys!” Fiona stepped away from him, eyes narrowing him down. “What are you doing, he has to die!”

“Oh please, you said it yourself Fiona, killing him would be merciful.” Rhys stepped up towards Jack, being mindful not to get too close. “I have much better plans for him.”

“And those plans would be?” Jack asked reluctantly.

Rhys looked directly back at Jack as he spoke. “I think I know a few people who would love to see you behind bars. I'm also willing to bet lots of people on Elpis have a thing or two to say to you.”

“I think I'd prefer you shoot me.” Jack stated.

“You'd like that wouldn't you?” Rhys smirked. “Too bad that's not going to happen.”

“So you're gonna strand me on Elpis for the rest of my life?” Jack questioned.

“Not quite, once we're done here, I'd like to personally take you back to Pandora and show you all the damage you've done.” Rhys explained.

“IF you think for one second I'm getting on a ship with you back to Pandora just so you can rub my nose it like a bad dog-”

“And then when that's done, I want to introduce you to one of my friends.” Rhys cut Jack off.

Jack looked at Rhys, waiting for him to explain who his friend was.

“Her name is Lilith, from what I've heard, she'd probably love to speak with you again in person.”

Jack recoiled, looking back at Rhys in sudden shock.

 

Rhys turned back to Fiona. “Gather the guys and tell the citizens of Elpis what's going on. We're going to need an empty cell.”

 


End file.
